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LOST RECORDS: PITTS BECOMES THE BUTT OF A JOKE STATEWIDE, BUT WE’RE NOT LAUGHING

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BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

ADD 1, 4/7/16 11:22 a.m. — In pursuit of more details on this story, THE PLANET has contacted police chief Mike Wynn, Mayor Linda Tyer, and each of the 11 city councilors for comment. We plan to follow up in The Weekend Edition to be published tomorrow. 

——– 000 ——–

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016) — THE PLANET is tempted to open today’s column with the immortal words of Rod Serling: “Submitted for your approval but without further comment …”

Here’s a story so bizarre that Pittsfield makes The Twilight Zone look like Sunnybrook Farms. As reported yesterday by the Boston-based website DigBoston, the Pittsfield Police Department‘s has lost a huge cache of public records. How did they vanish? Were they flying over The Bermuda Triangle? Were they in Judge Crater‘s knapsack? Find out how in this story from bostonmagazine.com, posted yesterday.

You can’t make it up. We wonder how city CEO Linda Tyer will respond to this doozy.

Pittsfield Police Lost Public Records, and Nobody’s Talking

A hard drive failure followed the mistaken arrest of an 88-year-old woman.

By Boston Daily

Photo via Facebook

PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

Pittsfield Police have potentially lost a ton of public records. There’s no way to be sure how many are gone or when they went missing. And nobody is talking.

A new story from the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism’s Maya Shaffer and Andrew Queremer—the same guy who requested City Hall’s emails with General Electric and received a bill for nearly $1,800—details how Pittsfield Police suffered a hard drive failure, destroying an unknown number of public records, just as soon as the two reporters started looking for them.

Last June, officers Dale Eason and Jennifer Brueckmann responded to a report of a man outside with a baseball bat, and mistakenly landed at the home of  88 year old Phyllis Stankiewicz, who answered the door with a small paring knife in-hand. According to police reports, the two officers kept  Stankiewicz from leaving her home and later placed her under arrest. The 88-year-old woman “resisted and had to be placed on the ground.”

Stankiewicz was taken to the police station, where she was photographed with an abrasion on her arm. In an internal email, Patrol Captain David Granger said the incident was “something that could tarnish the reputation of the department for years.”

Later that month, Shaffer and Quemere filed a request for records related to her arrest, including police reports, the booking video, and all correspondences related to the incident. Two days later, internal emails show one police investigator having trouble with playback on the booking video. On July 9, Pittsfield Police replaced the hard drive the video was stored on after it failed, and the next day, handed over email correspondences  and a bill for $25 for the video.

But by September, Captain John Mullin told Shaffer and Quemere that the video was “not available due to a hard drive crash.” The department later turned over emails indicating that no outside party had been informed about the failure, and the two reporters could very well have been the first to learn of it. A spokesperson for District Attorney David Capeless refused to say whether Capeless was made aware of the crash, but records show he was made personally aware of it as early as September.

A spokesperson for Secretary Bill Galvin, who oversees public records in Massachusetts, told Shaffer and Quereme that Galvin’s office is discussing what happened with Pittsfield Police. Attorney General Maura Healey, meanwhile, never responded.

You can read the full story over at DigBoston.

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This story highlights an aspect of official Pittsfield life that THE PLANET has documented in detail over the years: the utter lack of transparency. City officials think of government as a private domain. They too often see the public, judging by the actions witnessed on so many occasions, not as the owners of government and not even as worthy of service. Tyer has expended many syllables on how her government will be different with regards to transparency. Time has come, Linda, to prove it.

What do you say to this story? Is this acceptable? Will there be an independent investigation? Will there be consequences?

—————————————————————————————————-

“Here I stand head in hand, turn my face to the wall.” The Beatles, “Hide Your Love Away.”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.

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Economic Injun
Economic Injun
7 years ago

Billy Dalton staggered on the sidewalk someone said he stumbled and he fell
Six squad cars came screamin’ to the rescue hauled old Billy Dalton off to jail
Cause the law is for protection of the people rules’re rules and any fool can see
We don’t need no drunks like Billy Dalton scaring decent folks like you and me no siree
Homar Lee was nothing but a hippie walkin’ through this world without a care
Then one day six scrapping brave policemen held down Homar Lee and cut his hair
Cause the law is for protection of the people rules’re rules and any fool can see
We don’t need no hairy headed hippies scaring decent folks like you and me no siree
Oh so thank your lucky stars we’ve got protection
Walk the line and never mind the cost
And no wonder who them lawmen were protecting
When they nailed the Saviour to the cross

Kris Kristofferson

Pat
Pat
7 years ago

I always wondered what happened with that poor 88 year old woman. As with so many news stories in this area, there was never any follow-up. Now we know why. Still waiting to hear a follow-up on the home invasion. The arrogance of many city officials in this area is unbelievable. They laugh when you tell them they are the servants of the people.

Economic Injun
Economic Injun
7 years ago

Folks you’ve heard it before from others but if you let the gobsigs run the show this is the kind of crap that you end up with….GET INVOLVED.

heh heh
heh heh
7 years ago

Does this really surprise anyone in Pittsfield, Ma? Come on people. And don’t blame it on the gobsigs because they do not exist.

GMHeller
GMHeller
7 years ago

Mr. Valenti,
Not to detract from the story about an obvious cover-up by PPD, but why would 88-year-old Phyllis Stankiewicz answer a knock on her door by police — two cops, one a female officer — with a knife in her hand?

Missing from the current reportage is any mention of whether or not there has been a history of earlier incidents and police calls at the Stankiewicz property.

Chuck Vincelette
Chuck Vincelette
Reply to  GMHeller
7 years ago

Maybe she was peeling carrots. The knife was a paring knife for god’s sake!!!

Mr G1188
Mr G1188
Reply to  GMHeller
7 years ago

Hey GM, When the VERY brief and only story first ran, I believe it said they appeared at the wrong house, rousted Mrs. Stankiewicz who had been in the kitchen, then took her to the ground as she was armed and uncooperative. As Chuck says below, it was a paring knife, and she was 88 years old! A different approach than the one taken by the two idiot cops was certainly warranted.

VillageKnight
VillageKnight
Reply to  Mr G1188
7 years ago

To G1188. Some cops are smart, some not so:))
Year was 2011. I was jogging on 1st St. Police car followed me and I run faster just for fun. Police officer drove after me one block and then asked me to stop running!
I refused–he handcuffed me! Then 2nd car came and friendly Officer told him to release me:))

Already Tyred
Already Tyred
Reply to  VillageKnight
7 years ago

You probably need a permit to jog now

MrG1188
MrG1188
Reply to  VillageKnight
7 years ago

Great story Knight. Funny stuff. And I wasn’t implying every cop is an idiot, just the two who showed up as Mrs. Stankiewicz’ door.

GMHeller
GMHeller
Reply to  VillageKnight
7 years ago

To VillageKnight,
By being a wiseguy and refusing to stop after getting a demand by the cop to do so, seems to me that was probable cause for the cop to detain you for acting as a suspicious person.
Had you refused then to cooperate further, he would legally have been allowed to forcibly restrain and detain you and then lock you up til your arraignment or you made bail.
Yeah, you showed him!
Do you also refuse to stop for a cop when driving and a cop attempts to pull you over?

Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Reply to  GMHeller
7 years ago

She was minding her business, baking pies in her own home. The police went to her home illegally. They had no business there or no business telling her do anything.

What do we learn from this?:
Never bake pies in your home because you never know when the police will knock at your door, throw you to the ground and arrest you.
What if she was out in the garden, lord knows what dangerous weapon she might have had in her hands for digging. The police need to protect themselves from 88 year old women terrorists.

spagirl
spagirl
7 years ago

This Department is so corrupt….it is Vile. The separation and divide within their walls is a very strong indication of distrust gone rampant. Egos are huge.

Pat
Pat
7 years ago

Don’t they keep backup copies of all of these records on “The Cloud”? This city has a technology department that must have done this. If not on “The Cloud” then there has to be backup copies somewhere in case something like a hard drive crash happens.

Wolfman
Wolfman
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

Dosen’t the G-Man have a issue with PPD records missing, conflicting PPD statements, and dept. recordings being destroyed ? This appears to bolster and give credibility to his assertions.

Donna M
Donna M
Reply to  Wolfman
7 years ago

Wolfman-Every thing you just said is one million % TRUE. We will await
the Wizards research of this topic- and if true- we will see the
wizard in his famous role of David- in the David and Goliath show- and
we all know what happens when he plays that role. The planet will be
the place to be in the coming days weeks and months. Go get em Wiz.
You were right- all along in what you were saying. I pity some of
those- that are on the Wiz’s radar. Let the show begin.

VillageKnight
VillageKnight
Reply to  Donna M
7 years ago

Donna M is right!

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Donna M
7 years ago

The buzzard probably can’t find much about digital media in his 1964 Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Ron Kitterman
Ron Kitterman
7 years ago

From Hillary’s playbook the case of the missing hard drive and Emails, what a country.

acheshirecat
acheshirecat
Reply to  Ron Kitterman
7 years ago

It never surprises me when something on a business computer network disappears. Have you ever been to an IT department? Its like going to a daycare center. They have toys and games and cartoon cut outs, nerf toys etc.. They are also tucked away or off the main business site so no one will see them. I know because I asked 3 banks I do business with to see how secure the computer network was when prompted to do all my business on line. They said no at first but I persisted because it is MY business security I was worried about not theirs and I would take my business elsewhere. The first place I visited had a game room with putting greens and ping pong and other games. Another had action figures (dolls) and when I got there they were having a Nerf gun fight with small nerf projectiles flying across the office. Another had foosball and a game lounge. Reminded me of the old game room at the boys club. None looked or felt professional so I still do my business the old fashioned way, pencil and paper and ledgers and go to the banks in person. Nope doesn’t surprise me at all.

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  acheshirecat
7 years ago

Rest assured, no records disappear that Favor the Men in Blue.

Already Tyred
Already Tyred
Reply to  spagirl
7 years ago

Chief Wynn still has his Alvin and the Chipmunks records.

spagirl
spagirl
7 years ago

Mr. Capeless was aware as early as September. Perhaps he thinks this is below his ego too.

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  spagirl
7 years ago

Pete Arlos would have been all over this. RIP. This City misses him.

Paul
Paul
7 years ago

GMHeller, I myself answer the door with something in my hand many times. Since when is it a crime to hold a small knife in your own home. Doesn’t matter who is at the door. When I’m 88 I will probably switch from a gulf club to my hand gun when I answer the door.

Shakes His Stevens
Shakes His Stevens
Reply to  Paul
7 years ago

I usually keep a Ginsu knife by the door

dusty
dusty
7 years ago

OK, you have all had your fun but I think we have beat this subject to death by now. Let’s move on,

Did you know that the city of Pittsfield is building a new economic engine school which is going to revitalize the city while eliminating drugs and crime at the same time? These are the positive things we need to be focusing on. That other stuff probably never even happened or mayor Bianchi, the most openest mayor we have ever had, would have told us about it.

Economic Injun
Economic Injun
Reply to  dusty
7 years ago

Dusty- when I read your post I thought you had lost your mind until I realized you were using sarcasm. We need all the sane people we can muster on this site as there are already too many buffoons who post here day in and day out. Glad you are still on the side of the sane. love your posts.

dusty
dusty
Reply to  Economic Injun
7 years ago

If you live in Pittsfield you have to learn to laugh just so you don’t cry. Just pretend you are in a Mr Magoo cartoon and things will all seem normal.

VillageKnight
VillageKnight
Reply to  Economic Injun
7 years ago

To Economic injun.

I noticed long ago that Pittsfield people have neither sense of humor nor sense of irony/sarcasm.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
7 years ago

If the think the rest of the Commonwealth cares what happens in Pittsfield, you are sorely mistaken.

Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Reply to  Shakes His Head
7 years ago

People care about corruption and abuse no matter where it occurs.
The story was told in Boston.
The Berkshire Eagle did not print it. They woudn’t dare.

Now run to topix and continue running your mouth about Dan Valenti, Praxis, you little man.

Already Tyred
Already Tyred
Reply to  Rumpelstiltskin
7 years ago

Rump, it’s best to ignore the clown….it just wants to troll and it feeds on attention but it will go away.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Rumpelstiltskin
7 years ago

No, they really don’t. Pittsfield is only legendary in its own mind.

Ed Check
Ed Check
7 years ago

I had a hard drive failure several years ago. I did not have a backup, but found a company in Boston/Denver that recovered almost everything on the drive. It cost about $1,000.

Now I use an online backup service set on automatic. At about $100 per year it is worth every penny.

It seems like all the money that Pittsfield wastes, this could be a good investment.

Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Reply to  Ed Check
7 years ago

It is extremely rare that a crashed hard drive’s data cannot be recovered. Extremely rare. Where is this said hard drive? Does it still exist physically?

I bet money that it cannot be found. I guarantee with 99.9% certainty that the data can be recovered.

Hillary’s illegal emails were recovered even after she had them deleted by her techies.

People don’t buy the oh, hard drive crashed and we lost everything.
Its simply not true. The data is still there.

Dowager Hat
Dowager Hat
7 years ago

Off Topic: Detailed report in iberkshires on the attitude and responses to the tobacco sales permits and restrictions that came before the Pittsfield board of health. Very enlightening as to the boards concerns for local investments and business in general.
The board apparently scoffed at the mayor and an unusally unified city council. Maybe they all should take a hike like some pompous ass named Steve Smith threated to do. Jerk is an understatement. Part of Linda Tyer’s team ???
Since Gina Armstrong, the Pittsfield Public Health Director lives in Clifton Park, NY and occassionally commutes to city hall, maybe she can provide some insight into the percentage and number of similar permits in her city and state.

bill beno
bill beno
7 years ago

ok

Gene
Gene
7 years ago

The questions are only beginning on this story? Hard drives crash, but hard drives are almost always backed up. Was there backup here? And why did the city try to hide this?

dusty
dusty
Reply to  Gene
7 years ago

W

dusty
dusty
7 years ago

Wait until the Berkshire Eagle hears about this and gets their crack reporter on it. They will blow this thing wide open just wait and see. They have added 12 more pages ya know probably for stories just like this.

Can’t wait for tomorrows issue to read all about it.

Paul
Paul
7 years ago

Dusty, that is a hoot, lmao.

heh heh
heh heh
7 years ago

I hope everyone clicks on the “full story” link and reads it because it seems to show how the protection runs all the way to the top.

So no one should ever, ever question why Joe Kapanski does not trust his own government. There is a total lack of credibility from top to bottom.

mi
mi
7 years ago

Have Cliffy look for it.

Behnkrupt
Behnkrupt
Reply to  mi
7 years ago

Yeah, have him check his wind shield

Donna M
Donna M
7 years ago

The Mayor did another photo op abut getting in shape you decide if she needs some shaping up but she should put her emphasis on shaping up the city. Can’t wait to see what she will do about her
slippery friend and syncophant- Wynn. As you Know she is very very very close to him. We will get to see what she is made of very
soon. I can’t wait.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
7 years ago

Either your impotence is so high or your self esteem is so low that you constantly hate women.

mi
mi
7 years ago

Shakes are you a psychologist?

Shaking here boss
Shaking here boss
Reply to  mi
7 years ago

Nope, Just a po’ ole emobag.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  mi
7 years ago

Or Donna M is a sick sick man.

Local Yokel
Local Yokel
7 years ago

There aren’t many good teams left in Boston sport. off topic but concern and hope the celtics do good.

southeast
southeast
7 years ago

is it coincidental that the Eagle will be running this same story – in tomorrow’s paper? how many stories has the Planet forced the Eagle to run?

Local Yokel
Local Yokel
7 years ago

Their have been many.

Romen
Romen
7 years ago

IBerkshires ran the story tonight. Wynn blames old equipment and says they’ll be requesting in excess of $30,000 in 2017 budget for a new system. It gets better and better!

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Romen
7 years ago

Devices fail. I lost a flash drive with a grad school class project on it to unexplained failure. The Blizzard wants to have everything recorded. There is a cost to that, sho-nuff.

Romen
Romen
Reply to  Shakes His Head
7 years ago

Nah. This particular failure had nothing to do with the Blizzard’s case. But you’re right, the latest and greatest is expensive…$30K without redundancy!

Pat
Pat
7 years ago

Berkshire Eagle ran a story on this tonight. Same thing said as on Iberkshires. Drive acting funny, drive finally crashes, but the excuse for no back-ups is that they can’t afford a system for backing up the data. I say less money to the schools and more money to the Police Department to get this backup equipment for this important data.

Ed Check
Ed Check
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

1 TerraByte Backup Hard Drive $200
Software or Service to automatically backup $200/year
Peace of Mind that data is backed up….Priceless

heh heh
heh heh
7 years ago

Let us take a survey. How many believe the chiefs story?

Not me. And was there an explanation as to why it was all hushed up? And why did Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism hit a wall every where they tried to get any information on this? Why did it seem like no one wanted to talk about it if it was just a hardware failure? Why is the Eagle just now doing a story on it and not last year when the problem occurred?

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  heh heh
7 years ago

Because the Fish stinks

Pat
Pat
Reply to  heh heh
7 years ago

True. This happened in July. No mention in the local media until now because they are forced to tell the story since the Boston news site DigBoston and Dan V. have ran articles on it.

David Capeless said that the only thing they are guilty of is not making a backup of the information. I agree that it is unbelievable that there are no backups of this important information especially for a police department. Computers do have problems from time to time which is why everybody knows backups are so important.

southeast
southeast
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

who actually said there are no back ups? they said the hard drive crashed. no one said whether professional attempts to retrieve the data was ever made. no one ever said what happened to the hard drive. is it still available for a forensic recovery?

now if it is not – why not? who made the decision to dispose of it? were IT staff brought in? does the City’s IT staff know that data can be recovered?

one would think that even at $2 or $3000 – recovery would be better than bad press or a lawsuit.

it does seem that a technology failure just when the evidence may be bad for the PD is very untimely. I would love to believe Chief Wynn, and as soon as I can receive the complete story and how the disk is still available for further forensic review, I will. until then – I will look for the large tarpaulin covering several asses.

Deb S
Deb S
7 years ago

Well on Taconic radio station Bill Sturgeon sure does and he had no problem saying he believes the Chief. Same old same old as the city goes down the rabbit hole.

Thomas More
Thomas More
7 years ago

Nothing in the Eagle mentions the old lady who so aggressively attacked the two peace officers with the paring knife. How was that case resolved. Perhaps she’s connected and got off scott free.

dusty
dusty
Reply to  Thomas More
7 years ago

I am just happy that those officers were able to escape with their lives. As it is, the whole episode probably scarred them for life. Recurrent nightmares and getting jumpy around old ladies making pies.

Painter
Painter
7 years ago

The Pittsfield Board of Health on Wednesday denied a tobacco license for the new owners of a proposed gas station at Lyman and East streets. I suppose they did this to keep the public healthy but then and allowed liquor at city events.

Painter
Painter
7 years ago

It was unclear exactly how many videos were lost prior to the July 9 crash or how far back the drive dated, but documents relating to the matter indicate that the 80 gigabyte hard drive could hold “up to 1,000.” I believe that the new city government was hoping that this would never see the light of day so much for open government L T .

MrG1188
MrG1188
Reply to  Painter
7 years ago

This all happened under Bianchi, no?

Red Armstrong
Red Armstrong
7 years ago

Love The Water Wizards new Rug!. When did he buy it 40 years ago?