No need to run for cover yet.

I sent this email out today to one of my email buddies who after reading my recent posts that I’m about to out all the Red Plan critics who have emailed me:

Don’t worry [REDACTED]. A lot of magic markers are going to die today. I’m not printing out any email for the Defense Attorneys today. I’m only giving them my full list of email communications. I’ll mark out names of LDV folks and most others unless they are school board members. While their discovery demands include a catch-all phrase saying their requests are not limited to the specific topics they’ve mentioned (meaning the RFP and the contract negotiations and the June 19th meeting or JCI’s improper influence) or the personalities they’ve identified, That’s all I’ll give them. They may salivate over the subject lines but few of those in my 5000 emails mention any of these topics.

I’m posting all this stuff to show the bullying tactics of the defense attorneys. Other than all the drudgery of this I’m enjoying my victimhood and blogging about it. Not every David this world has produced has survived his or her contact with a Goliath but I’ve got lots of smooth stones left to fling at ours.

I’m going above and beyond the call of discovery so that when its their turn for discovery they won’t be able to say we didn’t comply with theirs.

Its possible they will look at the list I provide and demand particular email be printed out and turned over. Each piece will have to be negotiated and I’ll be able to argue why it shouldn’t be presented to them. If I am ordered by the Court to produce an email I suspect I’ll have the ability to mark out the names of innocent parties emailing to me. If JCI or the District can make the claim after reading these emails that there are grounds to have the senders names revealed they will have to make that case to the Sixth District Court. I’m betting the Court will view any excessive demands from them to print this stuff out as pure harassment and of no consequence to the issues in the case. The only proof of what the defendants did is in their documents not ours.

The list of people they demand my communications with are mostly Board members and employees of the District. As you know, most teachers dropped out ages ago from our email chain. I don’t have much email from before May of last year anyway because of a computer crash.

They would protest they are not searching for names of ordinary citizens and, except for the specific names or positions of people they mention I’m treating most of my email pals as ordinary citizens.

The one person who’s name I can’t mark out of significance is Gary Glass. I won’t print out any of his email just the subject headings and dates sent. I have no choice but to do this. After all the School Administration has been after Gary from the day he was seated. They hired that consultant for $70,000 to teach the Board members how to play nicely with each other right after he took office and the consultant helpfully informed the Board they had the statutory authority to remove any uncooperative Board members. Besides, as much as Gary likes to operate behind the scenes (like all the other Board members do) there is nothing he’s ever emailed back and forth that he didn’t have every right to email. There may be a few public documents in attachments he sent as well as a few versions of things LDV has worked on. Big deal. If I’m required to print them out I should have the right to redact them as well to cross out the names of any innocents whose names are mentioned. The Defense attorneys can make a case for our providing unredacted information to the Court but how can they justify making public the name of some poor citizen who has done nothing more than complain about JCI?

The fact of the matter is we haven’t done anything wrong. The District and JCI may have. If I give them all the carefully redacted stuff in my possession they will have no excuse to deny us a full list of their email records. Besides, almost all of the District’s email is public information anyway. It will be interesting to see if their computers crash and delete all the public data we’re requesting.

The trial is only scheduled to last three days. The Court already has all the information it needs demonstrating the sweetheart deal JCI got. The only earthly reason for most of the Defense’s discovery demands is to intimidate the plaintiffs and give the defense attorneys an excuse to jack up their legal fees. Its tit for tat since we’ve had the audacity to request the District’s and JCI’s public data.

The hoops they’ve jumped through to keep this information secret could simply be a matter of their not wanting to spend their clerical time making it available. It could also mean they have something to hide.

Harry

About the author