Saturday, April 25, 2015

Wolfgang Halbig's FOI Hearing - Point By Point - Total Failure

Now that the dust has settled, SandyHookFacts will evaluate the FOI Hearing.

On 4/24/15 a hearing before the Freedom of Information Commission in Connecticut was held to determine if Newtown has improperly withheld documents responsive to Wolfgang Halbig's FOI requests.

Wolfgang was represented by L. Kay Wilson, an attorney out of Glastonbury, CT.

The respondents were the Newtown Police Department, the First Selectman, the Town of Newtown and the Newtown Education departments; collectively referred to as  the "Town" and represented by Monte Frank, of Cohen and Wolf out of Danbury, CT.

The hoaxer crowd feels the day was a success simply because they got to see someone speak.  If that is the mark of "success", then Halbig's hoaxer attorney Kay did a wonderful job. She did indeed speak, when she wasn't announcing she had to "switch gears" because Monte Frank completely destroyed her weak claims.

If the goal was to prevail by proving that Newtown was not in compliance with Connecticut's FOI laws; i.e. the entire point of the hearing, then Attorney Kay failed miserably because she has been unable to demonstrate that even a single piece of paper has been improperly withheld by Newtown.

Worse, she was so woefully unprepared she attempted to introduce hoaxer produced items as actual evidentiary exhibits.   

The hearing was recorded by Mert Melfa and may be viewed here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP1MVx3RQ2c .



Wolfgang Halbig's Testimony - Main Points

1.  Work Orders

Records Sought: Maintenance work orders signed by the principal or her designee together with time stamps showing their completion.  Halbig viewed and received the work orders one day prior to the hearing.

Conspiracy Theorist Angle:  Hoaxer conspiracy theorists do not believe the school was in operation; therefore, the town cannot produce work orders.

Facts:
Halbig claimed he received the work orders only yesterday and further complains the document was not signed; therefore Newtown did not comply. Frank, and a later witness affirmed they do not regularly sign the documents. 

Further, Frank pointed out that the documents were made available 6 months ago.  Halbig denied that fact.  Frank then entered into the record a letter dated September 3, 2014. Halbig was then compelled to read into evidence that these documents were made available in September and also made to admit that he made no attempt to view them.  This demonstrated Halbig's credibility, or lack there of; however, Halbig was not through.  Halbig laughably tried to claim he tried to make arrangements on May 6, 2014; however, since that was BEFORE the FOI request at issue; Halbig did not appear rational on that point and the respose likely solidified his lack of credibility.

FOI Ruling Prediction: Halbig has received the documents and this issue is closed.


2.  The security system at Sandy Hook Elementary School
"Sandy Hook had a New High Tech Security System"

Records sought: Halbig is seeking records concerning the installation of a new high tech security system" installed prior to 2012.

Facts:  Newtown complied by providing the correct records to Halbig; the system was installed in 2007. There had been no mention of "new high tech security system" until hoaxers made that claim.   Attorney Kay desperately tried to salvage her client by reading a portion of an inadmissible document; her eyes darting back and forth, but she could not locate the words "new high tech security system".   This is because Halbig is lying, those words are not there; leaving the hoaxer attorney floundering.


Conspiracy Theorist angle: Halbig's premise is based on conspiracy theorists, including Halbig himself, misstating a headline and article by the Courant.

The original article is here:
http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-14/news/hc-security-letter-newtown-shootings-20121214_1_security-system-office-staff-student-safety

Halbig's ludicrous claim was debunked early on by CW Wade:



Commentary:

    The article never states that a "new high tech security system" was installed.  Simply reading the written words debunks Halbig on this point.  The article talks about "procedures". Nonetheless, for this request, Connecticut taxpayers bore the burden of having to deal with the conspiracy theorists misrepresenting the words in article.  However, since the news article is not admissible, this was not addressed at the commission. 

   At the hearing, Newtown showed that the system was installed in 2007, proving CW Wades debunking of Halbig to be completely correct.   The hearing further revealed that Wolfgang Halbig had received that discovery months ago.


Attorney Kay attempted to introduce two Wolfgang prepared documents that were obviously hearsay garbage.   Monte Frank objected to the introduction of obvious garbage exhibits and the objections were properly sustained.   Frank, at one point, tried to explain to Kay "This is classic hearsay"; however, Kay did not appear quite able to grasp that point.

Commissioner Street convened a little evidence class for Attorney Kay and Halbig and slowly explained to them that the media is not credible information and cannot be introduced at legal proceedings since it hearsay.  Attorney Kay's facial expression seemed to indicate she still could not grasp this simple second year law student concept, despite Streeter's careful schooling.  I think I saw  a bit of drool slide down her chin as she struggled to grasp the hearsay concept; however, it could have been the lighting. Wolfgang was completely lost, stating to his attorney: "Put the news story in even if he objects".    

 Halbig's failure on this point was precisely predicted by SandyHookFacts.com here:
http://sandyhookanalysis.blogspot.cz/2015/04/wolfgang-halbigs-foia-requests-destined.htm


Hoaxer Attorney Kay Wilson had to completely abandon the issue; completely failing to present a single rational lucid legal argument that Newtown did not fully comply with the FOI request as to the security system.

FOI Ruling Prediction:  Monte Franks final statement on this sums it up: "To the extent that there are documents about the school security system, you [Halbig] have them."    The issue is dead in the water.  


3. Newtown School Board Consent Agenda for Jan 23, 2013 with supporting documents.


Records Sought:  Halbig asks for the consent agenda for Jan. 23, 2013 and supporting documents.

Facts:  Newtown provided these documents to Halbig.


Conspiracy Theorist Angle:  Many hoaxer conspiracy theorist believe the children who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting are magically alive, aged 5-6 years, and sang at the Super Bowl in 2013.  These delusional people have published numerous videos and blog posts making such claims. 

Halbig has invented a premise that the Consent Agenda for the Jan. 23, 2013 must have had information on sending the Sandy Hook Elementary School Choir to Super Bowl.

Therefore, reasons Halbig, since documents are not present, he did not receive the document.

Commentary:  SandyHookFacts believes that if the general population of Sandy Hook Hoax conspiracy theorists get the names of the chorus, the children and their families will be relentlessly stalked and harassed; much like several others associated, even remotely, to that tragedy. Therefore, protecting these minors from Sandy Hook Hoax conspiracy theorists is essential.

In terms of the FOI request.  Halbig asked for a specific documents. Halbig received that documents.  Halbig's irrational belief carries no weight outside of the Hoaxer world and certainly carries zero weight in the legal realm.

In this instance, Newtown provided Halbig with his exact request; the consent agenda and attachments. Halbig was unable to grasp the concept that attachments might have a different date than the consent agenda. The commission even tried to explain it to him. These concepts are apparently beyond Halbig's understanding.

Again, hoaxer attorney L. Kay Wilson offered zero evidence that Halbig did not receive the complete document.

FOI Ruling Prediction: The town has supplied the document, therefore Halbig will get nothing. Another fail for hoaxer attorney L. Kay Wilson.


4.  Dash Cam
Records sought:  Halbig requested Newtown Sinko and Figol's Dash Cam for Dec 14, 2012.

Facts:  Halbig apparently viewed Sinkos on 4/24/15 and Newtown advised that they did not have one for Figol.

Conspiracy theorist angle: There is no ground breaking issue here. Conspiracy theorists don't believe the event happened so it is assumed Halbig wants video proof of that.. or something like that.

FOI Ruling Prediction: The documents have been produced therefore there is no issue here.

Halbig 'Caught' by Frank

On cross examination, Monte Frank, representing Newtown decimated Halbig; leaving him stuttering and looking like a red faced liar on several occasions.  Halbig also caused the wasting of about 30-40 minutes of hearing time either playing games or failing to understand basic simple concepts. 

The Town asked if Halbig had made any efforts, prior to 4/24/15, to inspect documents produced. Halbig admitted he had not.

Frank asked if Halbig had received responses to all his requests.


Halbig contended he received a response from Frank, "The town"; but had not received a response from the school board.   Frank pointed out that he represented the town and the school board.  Halbig stated "But you didn't write that in the letter . You said the Town."

Monte Frank then submitted a document "Respondent's 1 A letter dated June 30".

Monte then asked Halbig to read the first paragraph. Halbig asked Commissioner Streeter "Do I have to read?"  Streeter responded "He asked you a question, if you can't read it, just let us know". Red faced, Halbig began to read; however, instead of following the simple directions, he started reading from a random starting point.

Attorney Frank had to stop Halbig  and refer him back to the first sentence.  Frank should not be overly concerned; Halbig seems to start at random points in documents then misstate them, if he reads them at all. 

Halbig, reading aloud "This firm represents the Newtown Police Department, the Board of Education, and the First Selectman collectively referred to as "The Town".


Frank  had him read more then asked Halbig "So you agree that the Town is defended by the first sentence as the Newtown Police Department, The Board of Education, and The First Selectman, correct?"

Halbig says "I disagree!"  Halbig then whimpered "But you are doing it to control the documents."

At this point, it is important to discuss the reasonable person standard. It's actually not important what Halbig says because his ultra-paranoid  conspiratorial views are not the standard in a legal proceeding.

"Reasonable Person Standard"

It's not important to the Commission that Halbig agrees, disagrees, or believes. Wack  jobs are not the measuring stick that the Commission is going to use. The Commission is going to use the "reasonable person" measurement. That is: "would a reasonable person, under the same or similar circumstances, who read Frank's letter understand" it to mean as Frank indicates. The answer is of course, yes.  So Halbig made himself look foolish, for no gain.  The fact that hoaxers are unreasonable is why they are destined for failure.

This was illustrated when Halbig generated applause by telling Monte Frank "I don't trust you." The problem, from a FOI procedure point of view, is that Halbig's mere thought that he does not trust Monte Frank is not reasonable grounds to prevail at the FOI hearing. It's not evidence.  So Halbig got applause while proving Frank's point.  The hearing has nothing to do with obtaining documents; but rather centers on Halbig's unreasonable, irrational, paranoid, conspiratorial beliefs.


On Porta Poties and Sign-in logs.
Frank went on to explain that the Town did not have responsive documents as to the Porta Poties or the Sign-on logs.  Halbig stated he didn't believe it.

This is a loser  for Halbig because the FOI's hearing is about documents.  If a Connecticut agency has the documents, they must produce them or provide a valid exemption that allows them not to release the documents.  Here, the Town does not have the responsive documents; Halbig is done.

As of this hearing, Attorney Kay did not provide a single shred of evidence the Town has documents related to the porta potties or the Sign-on log.

Emails to and from Dawn Hochsprung and the Vice Principal

In the response, the town objected to the request as overly broad and unduly burdensome. This objection is a standard legal objection.  A proper response to that could be to narrow the request to enable the town to respond. Halbig admitted that he did not respond to the objection; merely filing an appeal.

This is a loser because the request is unduly broad; therefore, if the request is not narrowed to a reasonable request, this will continue to be a loser for Halbig.

Halbig also fails to understand the public records that are readily available concerning the Vice Principal position at Sandy Hook Elementary School  I doubt Attorney Kay would be very helpful here as she does not appear to have a grasp of evidence.

It did come to light that there were emails between Hochsprung and the school district facilities. This would be an instance where if Halbig's attorney has any brains, she might narrow her request and get documents. 

School Photos

Wolfgang Halbig attorney Kay attempted to go down the path of Wolfgang's hotly touted "proof"; photos of the school.

This is obviously irrelevant to document requests and Kay was appropriately shut down.  Kay was so thoroughly humiliated at their irrelevance that she even told Wolfgang "That's enough, we are getting hammered".



Hoaxers joyous

It is notable that the hoaxers see yesterday as a resounding success. In reality, hoaxer attorney Kay failed to demonstrate a single rational relevant matter of fact that would lead the commission to believe that Newtown has withheld documents.  Wolfgang called this failure a "game changer". Hoaxers declared Monte Franc was scared.

If complete failure is the measure of success for hoaxers; then they did very well.

The hearing is continued to a later date that has not been published.  Maybe between now and then Wolfgang can have his hoaxer buddies dummy up some more exhibits Kay can attempt to introduce.  Of course we know Monte Frank will be there to crush Halbig's attempt to introduce hoaxer delusion into any rational hearing.

Wolfgang Halbig celebrates his resounding defeat





12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lumpy goes 0-for-6 in the FOI hearing and then struts like a peacock in front of Marble-mouth Biondi.

Tard-fest 2015

Michael Flagg said...

Further elaboration on the security system: https://www.facebook.com/SandyHookTragedyFacts/posts/1056789531017691

Unknown said...

Wolfgang was wrong about the date for the field trip. I found the approval in the minutes of the school board meeting on Jan 8th on the school website. I guess he did not look all that hard since it took me about 10 minutes to find it.

Unknown said...

Wolfgang was wrong about the date for the field trip. I found the approval in the minutes of the school board meeting on Jan 8th on the school website. I guess he did not look all that hard since it took me about 10 minutes to find it.

Anonymous said...

@Chris Ratliff

he wasn't looking for a webpage on the school website. he's looking for an official document.

Unknown said...

Do you have link for those minutes chris Ratliff? I would love to post them on certain hoaxer pages,no prob if you haven't im just being lazy.

Anonymous said...

gazza mac, it only took him 10 minutes to find it, you couldn't?

(it's not there)

Unknown said...

I can do better I have the real school policy and not the one wolfgang is using which seems to be from Yale.

http://newtown.schooldesk.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=NVAJoPyzkLA%3D&tabid=16653&mid=7861
but you can get all the mintues from the schools website: all the way back to 2http://www.newtown.k12.ct.us/DistrictInformation/BoardofEducation/tabid/3294/Default.aspx011

Anonymous said...

This is a records denial case, and appeal of a request for records. I don't think that there is any question the agency withheld documents as they provided him with documents just days before the hearing or that the agency violated the promptness provisions to provide access to record. This is not the venue for examining the sandy hook issues in depth. He'll likely get a partial favorable ruling concerning promptness issues as the agency did withhold records for about 18 months. Then you'll note that this is only a records/FOIA case?

SandyHookFacts.com said...

I think the point was made that the documents were made available to halbig months ago; he just did not act. He did not send the money, he did not go view the files. Reading the tea leaves I'd say Halbig may end up with some hochsprung emails; but that will be by way of curing the objection through clarification as opposed to Newtown withholding documents. Halbigs hoaxer attorney Kay was very unprepared, showed up with hoaxer invented "evidnece", and generally demonstrated she is woefully out of her league. I don't see where they have shown even a single piece of paper has been wrongfully withheld...

Anonymous said...

New FOI hearing was 6-3-2015 (according to CT FOI website) - made a plea for $35,000 more on 6-2-2015 - to continue his fight, in a letter read by John B Wells on Caravan To Midnight

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a hit piece to me.