LVR Appeals Refusal to Produce Callahan Cell Phone Records

Superbowl weekends are always an excuse for mid-Winter parties and booze, leading to more than the usual number of accidents. So it's no real shocker that in the early morning hours of Superbowl Sunday three years ago, there was an accident in Bethlehem. No one would be surprised to learn that the driver at fault was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, or that he was speeding, or that he had been drinking, or that the impact of his accident would have him and his companion hanging upside down in an overturned vehicle.

What is a surprise is that the driver slammed into and injured a Bethlehem police officer. Even more surprising is that although the odor of alcohol was detected and a Bethlehem police officer was actually hospitalized, there were no field sobriety tests and no trip to the DUI center. A bigger surprise is that the driver in question was Dino Cantelmi, Mayor Callahan's brother-in-law. Eyebrows go up a little more when the officer assigned to investigate just happens to be one of the Mayor's friends, who was promoted ten months later. But the biggest shocker is that this story never appeared in either of the two daily newspapers, who love to scoop each other on the Bethlehem battleground. Even a week or a month after this accident, this would have been big news.

Instead, everything stayed inside a cone of silence. At least for awhile. It took three years, but the story finally came out. Three years later, my biggest question is what did Mayor Callahan know? Was he involved in keeping this story under wraps?

I filed a Right-to-Know request seeking cell phone records for both the Mayor and Police Commissioner on the day of the accident. Now I can track my own cell phone calls from three years ago, but Bethlehem officials incredibly answer that no records exist.

"The City maintains records of cell phone invoices, however individual cell phone records are not kept in the normal course of business. Therefore, the record you request does not exist and the City is not required to compile a non existing record pursuant to Pennsylvania Right to Know Law section 705."

Dead end? I appealed to the Office of Open Records yesterday.

Here's why. This is exactly what happened in another case, Bartholomew v. Smithfield Tp., AP 2010-0184. In that case, the Appeals Officer ruled that a City has "constructive control of its telephone bill and any records related to its account with the telephone company. Therefore, it is required under the RTKL [Right to Know Law] to retrieve a copy of any records that would include the information requested, if any exist, from the telephone company."

So if the telephone company can produce the cell phone numbers called that day, Bethlehem must turn them over. If City officials want to drag their cling to this invoice argument, they will have to file affidavits indicating what efforts were made with the phone company.

Ruh roh.

My appeal also seeks the photographs of the damaged vehicles. The City just ignored that part of my Right-to-Know request.

The Office of Open Records has thirty (30) days to rule on my appeal.