Dear Morris County Prosecutor's Office,

Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-5(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.

I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.

I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.

I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.

Records requested:

Legal invoices with accompanying sender's email (the actual email(s) from the vendor/attorney's office to the receiving individual at the Morris County Prosecutor's Office (MCPO), and then their respective included attachment(s), which would presumably be the invoices) for all legal services rendered and reimbursed by the MCPO from January 1, 2026 through June 30, 2026 from the below listed law firm:

SCHENCK, PRICE, SMITH & KING, LLP
220 Park Avenue
P.O. Box 991
Florham Park, New Jersey 07932-0991
(973) 539-1000
Attorneys for Morris County Prosecutor’s Office

My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by E-mail as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Jones

Dear Mr. Schmid,

Thank you for your prompt response, as you cite no exceptions, could be so kind as to identify who the record holder at the County of Morris would be then ?

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones

Dear Mr. Schmid,

Also, just want to clarify that if your office receives these legal invoices and any associated cover letters by way of US Mail, UPS, FedEx, Facsimile, or any other means of transmittal to your office, that I would expect you as the record custodian to fulfill my request.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones

Dear Schmid, Thomas,

In my search for these government documents I have found that there seems to be a problem with either your Office, or that of the County of Morris where you have previously directed me, but nonetheless I am hoping you can help me out here.

Maybe it's as simple as you need to conduct an internal review of your office's OPRA division, and you have simply erred in your original response to me, or that Sheila Leary at the County of Morris is mistaken, and as the County's Chief Law Enforcement Agency, you can see that they comply with the law here.

So in the interest of brevity I will try to limit the recounting of facts here. In response to my initial OPRA for certain invoices for outside legal counsel utilized by your Office with public taxpayer funds, your office claimed it had no such invoice documents, and they would exist with the County of Morris, I have subsequently attempted to OPRA them again from the County of Morris at your direction and I have quoted the response I received below.

<Begin Quote>

"The County of Morris has reviewed its files and has determined there are no
responsive documents to your request. The records you are seeking may (or may
not) exist with the Morris County Prosecutor's Office (an independent agency).
I have provided the link to their OPRA form for your convenience. I hope this
is helpful.

[1]Prosecutor's Office -
[2]https://morriscountynj.seamlessdocs.com/...

Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed. Thank you for your
attention to this matter.

If you have any questions, or wish to discuss this further, you may contact my
office at (973) 829-8126.

Sincerely,

Sheila M. Leary, CPM

Administration"

<End Quote>

What I am certain of is that the answer from both of your Offices' cannot be that there are no responsive records, as the records I seek are not exempt from production, at most only redaction.

If you, or Sheila Leary feel differently, then you should cite an exception to their disclosure. As the requester here I should not be placed in a bureaucratic circular argument of who is, or who is not, responsible for their production, this would be the very antithesis of the spirit of the OPRA statute's purpose.

I await your response.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones