Shelby Co., Ill. (ECWd) –
For those who have followed the circus of lies and misinformation in Shelby County, it’s worse than we thought.
The attorney for the county, while victorious in getting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Cody Brands dismissed over an alleged improper email address, actually argued that one of the reasons for such a dismissal is that the Shelby County Dive Team is not a public body. (motion to dismiss at this link)
“Plaintiff’s Complaint should be dismissed pursuant to Section 2-619 because (1) Defendant Shelby County Dive Team is not a “public body” as defined by FOIA;”
It appears the attorney must have missed our article where we thanked local junk salesman Jake Cole, as it was his information that exposed the dive team is, in fact, a public body, and we covered the reasons in that article. For those triggered by indicating Jake Cole is a local junk salesman, these are his own words: “Leon Jones loves to buy junk from us to sell in St Louis”.
The very reasons we pointed to in our article found their way into the Response to the Motion to Dismiss, and it spells it out quite nicely.
As can be seen in the final order, the Judge confirmed the Shelby County Dive Team is a public body under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
The dismissal was based on an alleged failure to send the request to a proper email address, however, there are some holes in the evaluation. In the Motion to Dismiss, the attorney very cleverly makes no reference to the private email address Austin Prichard was known to use for dive team business, shelbycountydiveteam@gmail.com.
“Plaintiff did attempt to send the November 7, 2024 email directly to the Dive Team Commander, Austin Pritchard, however, Mr. Pritchard had previously been advised to only use the official dive team email, and therefore never received said request“. (emphasis added)
Being advised to only use the official dive team email does not mean you never received it. Where is the supporting testimony or affidavit to support that Prichard never received the email? Illinois Rule of Civil Procedure 109 requires such an affidavit, yet none was provided. Did the court ignore this point, even though it was raised in the response to the motion to dismiss?
We digress.
Why is it OK for the Shelby County Clerk to conduct official business with county officials which include official communication to the very same email address for Pritchard as was used by Brands? Did the court miss this point in their review of the records?
From: Shelby County Clerk – Jessica Fox <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, May 30, 2024 at 9:12 AM
Subject: RE: Foia request
To: “Cody Brands” <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
CC: [email protected] <[email protected]>, “Austin Pritchard” <[email protected]> <[email protected]>, Shelby County States Attorney – Ruth Woolery <[email protected]>
Allowing this would mean county officials can communicate through private email, yet the public can’t use that same email address to submit a FOIA request. That is absurd.
While we hope a motion to reconsider is brought forward, we are pleased to see validation of what we said all along: The dive team is a public body.
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