Wednesday, November 27, 2019

CITY OF AUSTIN LAW DEPARTMENT ON NOVEMBER 27, 2019, SEEKS OFFICIAL AUTHORIZATION FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR WITHHOLDING LEGAL DOCUMENTS FROM ME THAT REFER TO THE OFFICE OF POLICE OVERSIGHT AND EITHER MYSELF OR MY SEPTEMBER 2019 LEGAL COMPLAINT THROUGH THAT CITY OF AUSTIN OFFICE


From: John McMillan

To: District 4 ; Austin Mayor Steve Adler ; Rep. Sheryl Cole (2019 CentralTX) ; news@cbsaustin.com ; CBS News '60 Minutes' Editors and Reporters <60m cbsnews.com="">; Darla Dixon ; Hernandez Sally [TCSO] ; Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt ; Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion (2017) ; Kirk Watson ; U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (2015) ; Office for Victims of Crime (U.S. DOJ) ; ACLU ; Texas Legal ; CountyAttorneyDavidEscamilla ; Fbinaa Info ; Texas DPS Office of General Counsel ; Governor's Office of Texas Open Records Administrator ; U.S. Department of Homeland Security ; Texas Association Against Sexual Assault Atty Kaiser 2016 ; central_texas@cruz.senate.gov ; Rey Arellano ; Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea ; APD Interim Police Chief Brian Manley ; Spencer Cronk ; patsy.spaw@senate.texas.gov ; takebackhope@tlsc.org ; Texasadvocacyproject Info ; Rainn Info ; Amie Ely ; Austin American-Statesman Managing Editor John Bridges ; marcos.johnson@austintexas.gov ; Jackson Anna ; Texas Rangers Division of DPS ; State Comptroller Criminal Investigations Division Chief Martin Cano ; Travis County Criminal Justice/Public Safety Director ; Criminal Justice Journalists Board Member Rashbaum ; Garnet F. Coleman ; Dwayne Bohac ; Kyle Biedermann ; Todd Hunter ; Jonathan Stickland ; jon.rosenthal@house.texas.gov ; alex.dominguez@house.texas.gov ; Charles Anderson ; Austin Board of Realtors-Govt. Relations ; Austin Chronicle Editors ; Houston Police Dept 2015 ; DMN Austin Bureau Reporter Robert Garrett ; Letters To the Editor ; news@texasmonthly.com ; Editor 2016 Hill Country News ; Ghbc Info ; Christian Hawley ; roger@northwestfellowship.com ; Sociology Prof. Jim Nolan West Va. University ; Sao State Tx Webmaster ; Texas Observer Editors ; Steven Rich ; Cheryl Thompson ; Miami Herald Letters To Editor ; Texas City Attorneys Assn. General Counsel Scott Houston ; Texas Municipal League 2016 ; El Campo Leader-News Editor Shanon Crabtree ; KXAN TV News Investigations ; news@dailytexanonline.com ; Harvard Club of Austin 2017
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2019, 09:04:06 PM CST
Subject: Fw: copy of city letter

A respectful FYI to each of you very influential public officials and civic leaders on the following (below) exact verbatim text of the November 27, 2019-dated (the actual cited date was November 27, "2018", but I have corrected that typographical error, below, as a courtesy to the City of Austin Law Department) and signed legal letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In that legal letter, Assistant City Attorney Neal Falgoust is seeking official authorization to withhold from me cited legal documents on file with the Office of Police Oversight of the City Government of Austin that each refer either to myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, Texas, or to the online complaint I filed in September 2019 with the Office of Police Oversight.
I received an e-mail today from the City of Austin Law Department that referred me to the City's online Open Records Center for an attachment I then downloaded that contained a copy of the cited legal letter, below, to the Attorney General:
----

City of Austin
Law Department
City Hall, 301 West 2nd Street, P.O. Box 1088

Austin, Texas 78767-8828 (512) 974-2268
Writer’s Direct Line (512) 974-2154
Writer’s fax Line (512) 974-2894

November 27, 2019

VIA FIRST CLASS MAIL 

Honorable Ken Paxton
Attorney General
Open Records Division
P.O. Box 12548
Austin, Texas 78711-2548

Re: Public Information Request received November 13, 2019, from John Kevin McMillan (PIR# X004530)

Dear Attorney General Paxton,

The City of Austin (the “City”) received the above-referenced public information request. The City believes some of the responsive information might be excepted from required public disclosure under sections 552.101 through 552.160 of the Government Code. This letter is a request for a determination under section 552.301 of the Government Code that the information is so excepted. A copy of the request is enclosed. By copy of this letter the City is notifying the requestor that it has asked for a decision from the Office of the Attorney General. The City’s argument against release of the information at issue will follow.

If you have any questions concerning this matter, you may contact me at (512) 974-2154.

Sincerely,

Neal Falgoust
Assistant City Attorney

Enclosure

cc: (without enclosures)
John Kevin McMillan
8805 North Plaza Drive
Apt. 2418
Austin, Texas 78753
______

From: John McMillan

To: City of Austin Open Records Coordinator ; Darla Dixon ; District 4 ; Texas Rangers Division of DPS ; Texas Legal ; ACLU ; Office for Victims of Crime (U.S. DOJ) ; Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt ; Patrick B. Howard ; Fbinaa Info ; Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion (2017) ; U.S. Department of Homeland Security ; Texas DPS Office of General Counsel ; Kirk Watson ; Rep. Sheryl Cole (2019 CentralTX) ; U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (2015) ; central_texas@cruz.senate.gov ; CountyAttorneyDavidEscamilla ; Governor's Office of Texas Open Records Administrator ; Hernandez Sally [TCSO] ; Margaret Moore ; dave.mahoney@traviscountytx.gov ; DFPS Office Of Consumer Relations ; Texas Association Against Sexual Assault Atty Kaiser 2016 ; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Devlpt (TX regional office) ; David Maxwell ; Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea ; Joyfulheartfoundation Info ; CBS News Story Ideas Editors ; Amy Lee ; Ariella Hannon ; Don Zimmerman District 6 Northwest Austin ; Austin City Council Member Ann Kitchen (2016) ; district9@austintexas.gov ; Rabbinic Call for Human Rights (NYC) ; State Comptroller Criminal Investigations Division Chief Martin Cano ; Travis County Criminal Justice/Public Safety Director ; National Crime Victim Law Institute (Lewis & Clark Law School Portland Oregon) ; Florida Sexual Crimes Investigators Assn. Exec Dir Moore 2016 ; Rainn Info ; Justin Holland ; Dwayne Bohac ; Garnet F. Coleman ; Senator John Whitmire ; Rep. John Bucy 2019CentralTX ; Rep. Erin Zwiener 2019CentralTX ; Rep. Vikki Goodwin 2019CentralTX ; State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (Austin area) ; StateRep.DonnaHoward ; Todd Hunter ; Attorney Cousin Jack Dane ; California Sexual Assault Investigators Assn Pres. 2016 ; Gerald Daugherty ; Gina Hinojosa ; Wind River Crossing GM Ann Coker ; TRA General Counsel Kenneth Besserman ; Bnaibrith Info ; Public Information ; Saintalbert Info ; Trevor Glynn ; Ghbc Info ; Criminal Justice Journalists Brd Wenger 2016 ; Criminal Justice Journalists Board Member Rashbaum ; Crime Report Ed. Stephen Handelman (2016) ; Minnesota Sex Crimes Investigators Assn. Brd Member Dunphy (2016) ; AARP ; Minnesota Center Against Sexual Assault Violence and Abuse ; rosie.truelove@austintexas.gov ; TX National Center On Domestic and Sexual Violence Dir. Debbie Tucker Austin ; cji@uh.edu ; Jacqueline L. Angel ; executivedirector@nebraskacoalition.org ; margaret.gomez@traviscountytx.gov ; Houston Police Dept 2015 ; Federal Law Enf. Officers Assn ; Outback Asst Mgr Nick Burton ; brooke.grona-robb@dallascounty.org ; Austin Board of Realtors-Govt. Relations ; Attorney General of Massachusetts ; Mncasa Info ; Cedar Park (TX) Police (2016) ; shawn.dick@wilco.org ; Kyle Biedermann ; jon.rosenthal@house.texas.gov ; Jonathan Stickland ; patsy.spaw@senate.texas.gov ; info@nacole.org ; National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Denver 2017 ; Austin American-Statesman Managing Editor John Bridges ; Austin Tenants' Council 2017 ; Austin Chronicle Editors ; Editor 2016 Hill Country News ; Piper Stege Nelson ; Williamson County (TX) Attorney (2016) ; Williamson County Sheriff Chody 2018 ; news@cbsaustin.com ; nbunn@ndaajustice.org ; Andrew-Rich@iowa-city.org ; Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault ; takebackhope@tlsc.org

Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 02:27:41 AM CST
Subject: 11-13-19 PIR re: OPO Complaint 2019-1056

To: Open Records Coordinator,City Government of Austin,
City of Austin Public Information Office,
301 West 2nd Street,
Austin, TX 78701
Office phone: (512) 974-2220
FAX: 512-974-2405

November 13, 2019

This is a Texas Open Records request in which I seek to obtain from you a copy of any and all e-mail communications or any other written communications that at any time in calendar year 2019 were authored or generated or received or sent or mailed or forwarded or FAXed by any staff member or official of the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) of the City of Austin, and that, in each such case, specifically referred in any manner either to myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, or to OPO Complaint Number 2019-1056.

I myself wrote and submitted the above-cited OPO complaint on September 25, 2019, at the official OPO website.

This public-information request was prompted in part in part by the factual information that no OPO staff member employed as a "Complaint Specialist" has ever actually interviewed me or spoken with me on the telephone at any time. I have called the Office of Police Oversight on several occasions in recent weeks, and I have been repeatedly informed on the phone that either a complaint specialist or a cited supervisory staff member in that office will call me back and speak with me. However, I have not yet received any such reply phone call or reply phone message from an actual complaint specialist or an actual supervisor for the OPO. So far, I have not been granted any phone conversation or in-person meeting with any supervisor or any complaint specialist in that new government office for the City Government of Austin. I did leave one voice mail message at 2:36 p.m. November 5, 2019, for Ms. Mia Demers, a cited female work supervisor for OPO, upon referral at that time from a female program specialist who had herself politely answered the telephone for OPO at 2:25 p.m. November 5. That female program specialist stated to me that her own first name is "Mallory", but that she was not willing to state her own last name, Mallory said.
The most recent written reply I have received so far from the Office of Police Monitor was the following e-mail to me:

"OPO Police Oversight
"To:John McMillan
"Oct 9 at 9:56 AM
"Hello,
"Your complaint # is 2019-1056.
"Our office has no legal authority.
"Regards,
"Office of Police Oversight"
_______

The civilly-worded legal complaint to OPO from myself that I submitted online on September 25, 2019, was focused on Sergeant Sandra Benningfield of the Austin Police Department Sex Crimes Unit. Sergeant Benningfield is the reported chief administrator of the APD Sex Crimes Unit, and is reportedly one of three total sergeants currently employed in that APD unit in Austin, Texas. The other two sergeants in that APD Unit are reportedly Sergeant Richard Jennings and Sergeant Jason Laduque.
The Office of Police Oversight reports directly to the Austin City Manager, according to what I was told this week by a very helpful 311 telephone reference service staff member for the City of Austin.
Two of the primary phone numbers for the City of Austin Office of Police Oversight are: (512) 974-9090 and (512) 972-2676. The OPO FAX number is 512-974-6306. The street address for the OPO is: 1520 Rutherford Lane, Austin, TX 78754.

I hope to hear from you soon in response to this public-information request.

Sincerely and Best Wishes,
from former Texas Department of Public Safety state agency full-time employee and former Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles state agency full-time employee John Kevin McMillan.
I myself am a certified direct descendant of the Rev. William Brewster, who served as head chaplain on the Mayflower and was a leading religious adviser to British Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford. That territory is currently situated in the U.S. state or Commonwealth of Massachusetts.My current home address ever since June 21, 2019:
Pebble Creek Apartments, 8805 North Plaza Drive, Apt. 2418 (a second-floor, eastward-facing unit in Building 17, which is itself situated near the northeastern corner of this complex), Austin, TX 78753.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
Cell phone: (512) 993-7305.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
My Blog: John Kevin McMillan: A 21st Century Conservative Left-Wing Agenda

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