Federal government keeps mug shots secret

Looking beyond the case cited I wonder if these laws could be used to show a valid discrimination claim in court. Sex offender photos -even federal charges- are released with regularity. Comments anyone?

2-9-2009 National:

TULSA, Okla. — An illegal immigrant held on complaints that he stabbed a Tulsa man to death. A man arrested in the rape of an 11-year-old girl. Family members accused of leading a large-scale drug-trafficking operation between Tulsa and Mexico. A police officer suspected of informing a drug suspect of an upcoming search warrant.

The jailhouse photos of all these inmates taken at the Tulsa Jail have never been seen by the public.

The federal government protects the mug shots of its inmates, citing privacy rights. The federal practice is in contrast to the state's Open Records Act interpretation, which considers jail mug shots to be public documents.

That means people arrested for violating state laws will have their mug shots made available. But the photos of people detained by federal officials stay secret. If a person is arrested on state and federal complaints, the mug shot is not released.

In practice, a college student arrested for public intoxication will have a mug shot publicly available, while the face of a suspected multistate drug-ring leader or identity theft mastermind remains unknown.

"Arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and ridiculous is how I would describe it," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

"It conveys the overall federal attitude that any information to identify a human being is private. It's the federal Privacy Act run amok. You are just not going to get a federal mug shot."

'A double standard'

States and municipalities have been more transparent about people who are arrested and being held in jails, Dalglish said.

"It's completely a double standard," Dalglish said. "The states are far, far more open than the federal government, hands down, no question."

Tulsa World requests for mug shots of federal inmates at the Tulsa Jail have been consistently denied. These include all illegal immigrants arrested and those held for the U.S. Marshal's Service for complaints ranging from stolen property and first-offense drug possessions to murders and child sex crimes.

The Tulsa World has an administrative appeal pending regarding one of the denied requests.

On Wednesday, the Tulsa Jail had about 1,400 inmates. Of those, 150 were illegal immigrants on a hold for the immigration service, and 34 were being held by the U.S. Marshal's Service.

None had their photos available to the public.

However, the policy on whether to keep the mug shots private seems to be left up to local officials in some places. At the Oklahoma County Jail, for instance, the photos were routinely released when federal prisoners were held there.

The Tulsa Jail has contracts with several federal agencies, which all stipulate that the agencies have the authority on what to release to the public. The practice is to post the mug shots on the jail's Web site of all inmates except those held for federal agencies or juveniles, said Undersheriff Brian Edwards.

"All we do is house inmates for the respective federal agencies," said Edwards. "It's up to them to release information on their inmates."

Occasionally, a person may be arrested on a state complaint, and a federal agency adds a hold later, such as an immigrant being arrested for a traffic violation who is later found to be residing illegally. The photo will be posted until the federal agency contacts the jail, which then immediately takes the photo down.

In the last fiscal year, the jail received about $1.33 million from the federal government to hold inmates.

"When we get an inmate on a federal charge, we may not know the particulars of their case," Edwards said. "They are the investigative agency, and we are the housing agency for the government."

Invasion of privacy

The Tulsa World requested mug shots of six inmates indicted in March 2008 on charges of smuggling marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine between the Mexican border and the Tulsa area. The allegations state the defendants, led by one family, violated the federal drug kingpin law, which requires at least five people engaging in a series of felonies to make a substantial profit.

The Tulsa World made the request on Aug. 26, 2008, and received the denial from the Justice Department on Sept. 15, 2008.

The 1974 Privacy Act was cited as the reason for the denial.

"(The act) allows an agency to withhold records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes to the extent that their production could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," the denial letter states.

The Tulsa World is appealing the decision with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Newspaper challenges in the U.S. Sixth District resulted in a new federal directive in the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee.

The 2005 change allows mug shots of federal inmates to be released, but only in those states.

When the Tulsa World cited the directive for consideration to make mug shots available, federal officials stuck with their original denial.

"Please be advised that the Department of Justice is not bound by this decision outside of the Sixth Circuit," the letter states.

A lawsuit filed by the Akron Beacon Journal sought mug shots of area businessmen who had pleaded guilty to a real-estate scam. At that time, the Detroit Free Press was fighting for disclosure of federal mug shots.

After the directive was changed because of the Akron case, the Detroit Free Press negotiated for access in line with the change.

Vince Foster case

The denials were based on a 2004 Department of Justice memorandum stating that media requests for mug shots should be denied except when disclosure would help capture fugitives.

So, federal officials will release photos if they need help from the public to catch a criminal, such as in Most Wanted lists. But the departments will not release photos once the suspect is caught.

The memo came after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that pictures taken at the scene of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster's death could be withheld under the privacy arm of the law enforcement exemption. The Justice Department used the decision to broaden the use of the privacy exemption.

"It's been this way for 30 years, and I don't foresee the situation changing when it comes to information about individuals," Dalglish said.

On President Barack Obama's first day in office, he issued two presidential memos, one on Transparency and Open Government and another on the Freedom of Information Act, instructing federal government agencies to operate under principles of openness and transparency.

"I see Obama loosening up some national security information and interagency documents, but I do not see a big change in personal privacy issues," Dalglish said.

Mug shots withheld

Citing privacy rights, the U.S. government withholds mug shots of federal inmates at the Tulsa Jail. Among them:

Christian Antonio-Hernandez pleaded no contest in September to first-degree manslaughter in the stabbing death of Angel Fuentes-Hernandez, no relation, who was found dead on Dec. 30, 2006, in a Tulsa garage apartment. He was residing in Owasso as an illegal immigrant.

Brothers Manuel and Mario Bonilla were indicted in March 2008 on charges of operating a large drug-tra.cking organization in violation of the federal "drug kingpin" law.

Nine other defendants, including others in the Bonilla family, were indicted after the two-year investigation, dubbed Operation Icepack. The indictment alleges that the Bonilla family smuggled marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine into Tulsa and Kansas City from areas near the Mexican border.

The defendants are also accused of smuggling guns into Mexico using hidden compartments.

Kimberly Chancellor of Salina was convicted in July on federal charges of committing sex crimes against three children and sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors say he forcibly raped an 11-year-old girl in 2003 and used force while trying to sexually assault two children in 2007, when the girls were 14 and 15 years old. The crimes occurred in Delaware County.

Buddy Visser, a former Tulsa police officer, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last year for stealing guns and ammunition from the Police Department's firing range and selling them on the Internet.

Former Tulsa Police Officer Rico Yarbrough was released from prison last year after serving about 15 months for engaging in a criminal conspiracy, obstructing justice and giving unlawful notice of a search warrant. The charges stem from Yarbrough's e(orts to help a friend involved with drugs avoid police.

Zobair Enwar Baig, Ra. Akbar Din and Nadeem Mustafi pleaded guilty last year in federal court as being part of a conspiracy to fraudulently exchange food stamps for cash at a Tulsa convenience store. Baig owned the store, and Din and Mustafi were clerks.

About $838,000 was obtained starting in January 2005. Baig was sentenced to 33 months in prison, and Din and Mustafi were sentenced to one year of probation. Sixteen others were charged in state court. ..News Source.. by Ginnie Graham, Tulsa World, Okla.