Local Government TV

Friday, August 13, 2010

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.

14 comments:

  1. First, why not talk to Sheriff Miller he was the Chief at the time and knew everything.

    Second, your pals Jack Spirk and Jim Hickey are close Callahan confidants, why not go to them.

    Think, Bernie, think.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keep up your requests! Keep up the demand for photos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What's going to happen with the city's accounting department now that irregularities have been revealed? Will this woman resign?
    She is way over her head with this job.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If Callahan had nothing to hide, he'd shove these records in your face and turn this on you.

    There is the off chance that he is laying-in-wait to do just that, but my bet is that where there's smoke, there is an inferno.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This whole story is a classic case of the kind of investigative journalism that newspapers used to do. I have to admire your tenacity and boldness, Bernie, as you are going it alone, without the institutional protections given a newspaper reporter. Wondering whether part of the problem might lie in where Mr. Cantelmi and his companion had been before they went on the ill-fated drive?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is such bullshit bernie..Dino
    Cantelmi is a great guy with a good family who you are using to go after Callahan. Have you no shame sir? You and some of your idiot readers are making accusations with no basis of fact that are shredding a good man's character...Good luck with the law suit buddy..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bernie:

    The silence from the Callahan Camp is deafening.

    Keep up the great investigative reporting work! And let these troll comments run off your back.

    Seems like the Callahan Camp is pleading "nolo contendere."

    ReplyDelete
  8. "This is such bullshit bernie..Dino
    Cantelmi is a great guy with a good family who you are using to go after Callahan. Have you no shame sir? You and some of your idiot readers are making accusations with no basis of fact that are shredding a good man's character"

    This argument shows exactly why you should not have redacted the woman's name.

    ReplyDelete
  9. People have already complained to the Bethlehem Press about O'Hare reporting. He is not capable of writing about News as he is far to biased.

    The complaint has centered on Northampton County. Since Bernie has a mancrush on both Stoffa and Angle his reporting isn't reporting at all and should be correctly labeled as an editorial.

    The Bethlehem Press folks said they would look into it. Let them know how you feel.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Bernie:

    The silence from the Callahan Camp is deafening.

    Keep up the great investigative reporting work! And let these troll comments run off your back.

    Seems like the Callahan Camp is pleading "nolo contendere.""

    more like indifference

    ReplyDelete
  11. To 1:35 a.m., who said "The Bethlehem Press folks said they would look into it. Let them know how you feel."

    I told the Bethlehem Press editor, and the publisher of the Press, weeks ago that I thought Bernie was a great addition to the paper....So, I guess they hear all kinds of opinion, and do what they want, as it is their paper. They do have some dopey editorial comments from time to time, but, hey! -- like I said, it's their paper.

    ReplyDelete
  12. If the Bethlehem Press wants O'Hare to write for them that is fine. However, everything he writes should be clearly posted as "editorial" or "opinion". It is impossible for Bernie O'Hare to write an objective article about Northampton County and now the City of Bethlehem.

    I know many people who read the Press because they prefer the coverage to the two big papers. If highly opinionated people like O'Hare are reporters that will change because then the Press will just be another part of the O'Hare blog praising all things Angle, Stoffa and Dent.

    He is incapable of objective reporting when it involves pol's he loves and hates, he drips with bias in his every word.

    ReplyDelete

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