King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association et al v. J. Kenneth Blackwell et al

Filing 96

Supplemental Memorandum Opposing re 92 MOTION to Quash Plaintiffs' Subpoenas filed by Plaintiffs Willis Brown, Miles Curtiss, Paul Gregory, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, League of Young Voters/Columbus, Ohio Voter Rights Alliance for Democracy, Matthew Segal & Harvey Wasserman. (Attachments: # 1 Appendix OEC Complaint & Exhibits, # 2 Appendix OEC 11-1 Hearing Transcript, # 3 Appendix OEC Hearing Exhibits 1-5, # 4 Exhibit 1 Cit for Strg OH contributions, # 5 Exhibit 2 Ptr for OH's Future contibutors, # 6 Exhibit 3 Arnebeck to Smith Doc Hold Ltr, # 7 Exhibit 4 Rove on Face the Nation, # 8 Exhibit 5 Tobacco Coup of 1994, # 9 Exhibit 6 Coalition for Legal Reform, # 10 Exhibit 7 Analysis of Ltr to FBI on Connell death, # 11 Exhibit 8 Analysis of Connell crash site, # 12 Exhibit 9 Cyber Map of 2004 OH election, # 13 Exhibit 10 Cyber Map of 2006 OH election, # 14 Exhibit 11 Smartech targets Obama) (Arnebeck, Clifford)

ACCESS TO INFORMATION/DETAILS ABOUT THE CRASH
December 21, approx. 6:30PM
Visited Akron Canton Airport
Spoke in info desk supervisor Lynn
She called Airport operations who said Flight control (ie. Air Traffic Control) is not talking
with anyone. Ongoing investigation. Referred to Kristie Van Auken and Highway Patrol.
Highway Patrol Police Report
Report #76-131
At meeting with Lt. Eric Sheppard, Post Commander at North Canton State Highway
Patrol. Met for 1 hour, waited for return of trooper Jason Halstead, who was the trooper
responsible for compiling the report.
1) Sheppard made clear the report was not finalized.
2) It was however formalized on an official form that was shown to me. From which I
took these notes. I also took cell phone pics of the report when Lt. Sheppard left the
room to ask a question re. the Civil Air Patrol of Trooper McCarthy.
3) Sgt. Leo Shirkey arranged for Dispatch to make calls to the TSA, FAA, NTSB
4) Halstead took photos that will be available when the final report is posted.

Details from reading Report:
Crash site: Lake Township
Long: 81º 22‟ 40 862
Lat: 40º 56‟ 00 937
Tail Number: N9299N
Pilot Certification #: 2854118
Ceiling: 1000‟
Visibility: 9 miles
Windspeed: 13 mph
Temperature: 34º F
Description of crash site:
Rutted in yard – slid 50‟ – 60‟, fire on ground, right wing clipped flagpole.
Angle of descent at time of crash: 30º
Angle of wings at time of crash: 30º
Area of debris: 290 feet from point of first contact. 148 span at widest span.
Timeline from Report
1800 Approx. time of crash [NOTE: Actual time of crash per FAA – ATC: 17:53]
1804 Received call at North Canton State Highway Patrol Dispatch
1822 Sgt. Leo Shirkey (1st Trooper on scene)
1826 Trooper Halstead
1851 Davies from Unit-858 (different post arrived on scene)

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1900 Lt. Sheppard, Post Commander (off duty) arrived on scene
1903 Campbell (Examiner from Stark County Examiner, Coroner not mentioned)
2032 Dispatch advised wife who called Highway Patrol Dispatch
2145 FAA Aviation Safety Inspector Julio Galarza, Jr.
2206 Lt. Sheppard cleared scene
2329 Maier U-414 arrived
0010 Sgt. Shirkey, Trooper McCarty, Halstead cleared the scene
0525 Weirtz/Maier U-414, escorted Belden Village Towing to Hanger at Akron-Fulton
airport
0612 Airplane pieces secured at Akron-Fulton Airport
The Ohio Civil Air Patrol
IMPORTANT NOTE: The participation of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) from a nearby
Squadron, was not mentioned anywhere in the very detailed report shown to me. This
even though I am told they often respond to crash sites to support search and rescue. In
this case they brought a device to locate the ELT which according to McCarthy (and Fire
Dept. Captain Geisner) was still transmitting after the crash. That device can be seen in
news coverage. And McCarthy can be seen reaching into the tail of the plane to locate
the device.
Because I had seen two men in green military uniforms climbing through the wreckage
on local television news coverage and taken two stills of that news coverage, I asked Lt.
Sheppard if there were any military that responded to the crash. He said yes, two guys
from the Civil Air Patrol had responded, offered their help. Sheppard said it was not
needed. He explained they were only on scene for a short while. I clarified that they were
not involved in the recovery process, climbing over the plane, etc. He said, “no”. I
repeated back his statement and he confirmed they were not involved. The story
changed after I showed Sheppard the three photos. I had, one of McCarthy and two of
the CAP members. He looked at the photos on my laptop, I pointed out the device in the
hand of the CAP members and he said they were Fire. Dept. flashlights. He then
excused himself to show them to McCarthy who he identified in the photos.
When Sheppard came back into his office where I was seated at a conf. table, he told
me awkwardly that he didn‟t know why he recollection was so off. But that CAP had
assisted in location of the Emergency Locating Transmitter which I was later told by
Captain Geisner was still transmitting after the crash. Geisner also said that it was
apparent to him that McCarthy knew the guy from CAP.
Contact Sheriff’s Detecteive David Stone. Deputy Sheriff
A CAP member since 2001, Stone holds the grade of Captain and serves as Public
Affairs Officer for the North Canton Composite Squadron 278 based at the Akron Canton
Airport; and as Ohio Wing Group III Public Affairs Officer.
I contacted Stone at home on the 23rd. A daughter gave me his cell phone which I
reached him on. 330-808-3288. He was not aware of the participation of CAP at the
crash site on the 21st, despite the fact the crash was all over the news and CAP had two
people there according to the State Highway Patrol. Stone thought that perhaps Don
Barr, Incident Commander of Group III might have been there. Local members are
tasked by HQ in Huntsville, Alabama. There primary job is to secure perimeter but they
also sometime turn ELTs off. There priorities: 1) protect the public, 2) protect/guard the

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scene, 3) Assist in turning off ELTs. Clear guidelines about removing the device and
recording and reporting the serial numbers which could be checked with their PR dept.
Mentioned Senior Flying Squadrons, name Blake. There was an older (over 60) man in
military uniform on site. Sheppard said he had Captain‟s double bar on his uniform.
Sheppard did not ask to see his credentials.

Summit Aviation (an “FBO” or Fixed Base Operator – Storage of Debris
[After going to airport on Dec. 24th and asking around I found the debris stored in a
hanger owned by Summit Aviation, next to massive Lockheed Martin facility, formerly
owned by Goodyear Tire. I was told by Summit Air accountant Julie Wise on Dec. 24th
that there were no cameras on the building and that there was “drive-around” security;
Plucinski was not available, he was flying.
Told on the 23rd by Sheppard that Trooper McCarthy was asked by FAA Aviation Safety
Inspector to arrange for transport of the debris to a storage facility. Sheppard told me at
that McCarthy, arranged “through personal contacts” the storage of wreckage in a
hanger at “a small airport in the Akron area.” Sheppard said that McCarthy was a pilot so
it made sense to me that he had personal contacts locally in the aviation business.
Two weeks later after the NTSB report is released I called the SHP to talk with
McCarthy. He would not answer any questions and referred me to Lt. Sheppard who I
called. After a long conversation during which he got defensive when I pointed out the
lack of security at the Summit Aviation hanger he said he would ask McCarthy about
how he came to arrange the storage at the farther away airport. Sheppard called me
back to change the story a second time to say that in fact FAA agent Galarza had made
the arrangements. I believe the first story is accurate given McCarthy is a pilot.
Sheppard informed me that McCarthy is a five year veteran of the Highway Patrol and
that he is a pilot. He said that McCarthy was recently assigned to the North Canton Post
on “Special Assignment” handling special investigations. He is the only investigator
working at the North Canton post.
On January 9th I learned from the Summit Aviation facilities manager that one of his
guys/employees (may have been Mark Grossman, a name mentioned to me twice in
connection with Summit) had received a call late on Friday asking if they had space. (I
need to find out from who. I have Tony Plucinski‟s number and email; 330-814-7167,
[e-mail]).

I learned from Plucinski that he knew Connell from when Plucinski worked at Castle Air
at the Akron-Canton Airport to the south where Connell stored his plane for some time.

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Lt. Sheppard gave me name and number of the only known eyewitness, William
McClelland, [e-mail] Cell: 330-232-0916
Rawstory posted his entire formal statement online. Mitch Gallo at NTSB quoted
McClelland in his Preliminary report but had not interview him at the time it was released
on Dec. 30th. Highway Patrol interviewed him 24 hours after the crash and I interviewed
him on Tuesday.
Notes/Quotes from McClelland interview at his home:
Called the local Sheriff and emailed the Highway Patrol with his report.
This to accompany his written statement, transcribed by him the night of the crash.
Described it as “Full throttle engine” noise which he heard first. Thought it was a small
plane and that it was actually climbing, and accelerating. When the plane emerged from
the clouds it was diving close to straight down. Then he lost sight of the plane or could
no longer hear the engine. The lights and engine appeared to him to stopped or gone
out at the same time. At a max. of 2 seconds later he heard the engine back on again,
but did not see the lights again. A second or so later he heard the thud and then say the
orange glow from the crash site.
He assumed that when there was no crash after the engine stopped/lights went out that
the pilot was doing a stunt over a house. He assumed that the pilot had regained control
of the flight and pulled up. This was consistent with the movement of the plane from
where he lost sight of it and the ultimate crash site.
Some quotes:
“I thought the pilot was doing a stunt over the house when there was no crash after I lost
sight of the lights.”
“The plane didn‟t fall out of the air because the engine stopped working” [It was full
throttle]
“It was bizarre, strange.”
The Trooper who came to his home, a three year veteran, said, “It‟s going to be a long
investigation.”

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Greentown Fire Department Capt. Lorin Geisner
NOTE: First on comment on when the State Highway Patrol reports they were called by
the central 911 dispatch, 6:04. They have a central system that takes the 911 calls from
the public and then dispatches Fire, Police, EMS, etc. as needed. Why if the Fire Dept.
was alerted at 5:54 and according to Geisner on scene at 5:58 would the Highway Patrol
not get a call until 6:04? That‟s a full ten minutes after the Fire Dept. was alerted.
The Fire Dept. was on scene within 4 minutes from tone.. The crash was at 5:53.
Geisner said he was on the scene at 5:58.
Geisner, familiar with flight patterns because the fire station is within flight path to the
airport, said the crash site was consistent with the track of a small plane coming around
for a re-approach. The crash site is south of the glide path to runway 23. According to
Geisner, the plane was heading in a southeasterly direction at the time of the crash.
Normal protocol requires the Captain of the FD to determine the size of plane and
number of souls onboard in order to know how much back up (water tankers, engines) to
call upon to support the fire fight and to also search and respond to needs of survivors if
any.
On the way to the scene he asked Dispatch to determine the size of the plane and the
number of souls aboard. Dispatch was not able to secure this information. On a previous
response to a crash before 9/11 he was able to get this basic information. In this case
since he did not know the plane size he ordered two tankers and an engine from
Hartville and two tenders from a second
There were two fires at the scene. One, the garage and two the plane itself.
They extinguished the flames within minutes.
Geisner explained that two members of Airport Operations (not ATC) arrived on scene
shortly after the fires were extinquished. He said that they are trained in airplane fire
fighting techniques. One of them was an operations supervisor. Geisner asked him to
call ATC to try again to get essential information. He was most concerned with the
number of souls onboard, to know whether or not he must widen a search for
bodies/survivors.
When the Airport Operations guy (probably the “supervisor” or possibly a volunteer
firefighter at airport) got off the cell phone, he told Geisner that the ATC was “all in
lockdown”, and that they said „we can‟t release that information.‟”
This is within twenty minutes of the crash and ATC is withholding the most basic
information about the crash from the Captain with the FD responding to the crash. Trying
a second time to get this info from the tower. Did higher ups contact ATC right after the
crash and did put them into information lockdown?

From my interview with Gallo, we know that Connell did say something after he declared
an emergency. Did Connell indicate foul play or say something that suggested sabotage

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to the AT controllers? What would explain such a total black out on information to first
responder Geisner who only wanted to know if there were others onboard?
Geisner called Ohio EPA who arranged for contractor to come to remediate the site of
airplane fuel.
1hr 10 min after crash, the guys from CAP arrived. CAP said, “We are still getting a
distress signal. We need to turn it off.”
Airport Operations
Kristie Van Auken 330-896-2376
[e-mail]
When I tried to reach Van Auken who I had met the day before I reached Todd Laps of
Perry Township. Laps, the Public Safety/Operations Manager
([e-mail]) told me that he and another Airport Operations
employee Jodi Adkins were tasked to go to crash site. [Geisner when I spoke to him by
phone for a follow up said that a third rep from the airport showed up later.]
I recorded the conversation with Laps (STE-013 on my recorder). It was not clear he was
the one who called ATC on the request of Geisner. I‟ll have to listen to the recording. But
he denied that there was a lockdown on basic information. Still Geisner didn‟t get what
he needed. And Geisner confirmed that‟s what the Airport rep. told him in response to
the request for flight details.
Laps was recently promoted and is a 25 year veteran of Airport Operations.
GREEN, Ohio, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Things just keep getting
better and better at Akron-Canton Airport (CAK). Two outstanding team members
have been promoted to management positions to keep the airfield safe and
secure and the momentum strong at CAK.
Todd Laps, who has been part of the airport team for 24 years, has been
promoted to public safety/operations manager. In addition to managing the
day-to-day operations of the airfield, he will be in charge of keeping the
airport compliant with all federal regulations. As the head security manager
at CAK, Todd will also serve as the chief liaison between the Transportation
Security Administration, the airport and the airlines operating here. He also
serves as fire chief for the airport's aircraft rescue and firefighting
division, a 30 member department.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS156182+05-Dec2008+PRN20081205
Here is what he said when I asked about his attempt to determine how many souls were
onboard:
Laps: “We were trying to determine how many souls were onboard. I had some
phone calls placed to see if I could get that number. It didn‟t come in a timely
enough fashion. It was some time before it was confirmed that there was one
soul on board.”

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N.B.: It‟s possible that it was Jodi Atkins who was present at scene who placed the calls
to FAA or ATC to get information about the number of souls on board. And it may have
been Adkins who told Geisner directly that there was a lockdown and that all details
were secured regarding the flight. This might have been the case because of what might
have been revealed in Mike‟s last words; those that were not revealed but which
followed his declaration of emergency.
Airport was awarded the FAA's 2006 Great Lakes Region Safety Award for outstanding
operational improvements and significant safety enhancements.
Kristie Van Auken, Senior Vice-President and CMCO of Akron-Canton Airport,
Akron: [phone], Canton: [phone],
[e-mail]
QUESTIONS for Kristie:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Who was it that Captain Geisner was talking with at the scene?
Adkins? Did Laps have Adkins make the calls to ATC, etc.?
Who did your team call exactly for this basic information?
Do ATC and the tower personnel have access to flight plan information? How do
they go about getting details about the flight such as the number of souls?
5) How long was it before the Laps, the TSA, the FAA was able to get this basic
information to Captain Geisner?
6) What is the normal response time relative to getting such info to first responders?
7) What accounts for the long delay?
Airport President/CEO: Rick McQueen
Fred Krum, former Airport Director, retired 2008
Lives in Fort Myers area of Florida.
Board members are as follows:
Stark County
Richard Kempthorn
Steven Oakland, vice-president
Ward J. Timken
F. Stuart Wilkins
Summit County
Mark T. Clark
Cathy C. Godshall
Beth Houseman, president
Robert G. Konstand

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Fltplan.com
Has only one flight in its historical record of non-commercial flights for N9229N
http://www.fltplan.com/AwTrackSelectToHistoricalMap.exe?a=1
December 19

Prepared by eyewitness William McClelland

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9

September 18 – 23 minute flight, official diverted. Returned to CAK

November 21
NOTE:
October 1
Connell flew to Tampa, FL, presumably to work on merger with GLS which has been
finalized and announced as of January 8th.
November 6
Connell flew to College Park on November 6th, just two days after the election (and 3
days after his deposition) and stayed two nights in DC returning on Saturday to Akron.

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Mailing Address
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Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
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