HONOLULU, Hawaii - September 22, 2009 - Leo D'Onofrio says he will be assisting one of his readers in filing litigation in Hawaii state circuit court pursuant to her ongoing request for public information denied by Hawaii officials. (Readers of his blog will recognize her as MissTickly, aka TerriK.)
Correspondence sent to TerriK by Hawaii officials indicates that Obama’s vital records have been amended and official records pertaining thereto are maintained by the state of Hawaii.
TerriK was originally interested in whether or not Obama made a request to amend his records and to inspect them for the purpose of amending. Those requests (not the actual amendments) do not appear to be protected according to the statute and various opinions issued by the state... regardless... TerriK's requests to see the amendments had to be answered in one of three ways according to the statute and the manual:
Correspondence sent to TerriK by Hawaii officials indicates that Obama’s vital records have been amended and official records pertaining thereto are maintained by the state of Hawaii.
TerriK was originally interested in whether or not Obama made a request to amend his records and to inspect them for the purpose of amending. Those requests (not the actual amendments) do not appear to be protected according to the statute and various opinions issued by the state... regardless... TerriK's requests to see the amendments had to be answered in one of three ways according to the statute and the manual:
- We have the record you requested and will provide them.
- We don't maintain the records you requested (aka we don't have any such records in file).
- We have the records, but you are not entitled to see them.
She was told on two occasions by an Office of Information Practices (OIP) staff attorney that if no such records exist, they must notify her of that fact.
Eventually that same staff attorney, acting on advice of the Department of Health (DoH) told TerriK that the records were not available as they were protected. Their official response was that she wasn't allowed access to those records. They never told her that they didn't maintain these records she requested. If they didn't have such records, then they would have been required to tell her the records don't exist.
D'Onofrio will issue a full statement and press release on behalf of TerriK via his blog in the days ahead. This statement will include a complete history of correspondence between TerriK and Hawaii state officials in the OIP and the DoH.