In a 15-page memo, ACLU volunteer attorneys Neal McNamara and Jessica Jewell, from the law firm of Nixon Peabody, argue that the DEA has wrongfully withheld thousands of pages of evidence shown during the 2011 trial of Dr. Paul Volkman, whom the Department of Justice calls “the largest dispenser of oxycodone in the country from 2003 to 2005” and who is currently serving four consecutive life terms in prison.

Requesting the prompt release of this trial evidence, McNamara and Jewell write, “The government cannot on the one hand hold this case up as an example of how it investigates and prosecutes diversion cases and on the other state that the majority of the evidence used to convict such a defendant is not actually available to the public.  FOIA is meant to prevent such ‘secret law.’ The general public clearly has an interest in knowing how Volkman was investigated and prosecuted.”

In support of the motion, the memo further notes that the federal government itself has uploaded to a publicly accessible judicial records website some of the documents it continues to withhold from Eil.

The ACLU’s legal memo was accompanied by an eight-page affidavit from Eil, in which he describes an array of obstacles he faced while covering the Volkman trial. Before the trial began, Eil says a DEA agent told him he could be charged with witness tampering for conducting interviews with potential witnesses. In 2011, while attending the trial, in Cincinnati, he was subpoenaed for testimony by the lead prosecutor and barred from re-entering the courtroom, though he was never actually called to testify. When he filed his FOIA request with the Department of Justice in February 2012, the agency took more than three years to fully respond, and withheld more than 85 percent of the pages it processed. Many of the pages released were significantly redacted.

“In 2009, when I learned of Volkman’s indictment, I set out to tell the story of a highly-educated man – my father’s former classmate – who became one of the most notorious prescription drug dealers in U.S. history,” Eil states in the affidavit. “As we approach the five-year anniversary of the verdict in that case . . . I am astonished that the vast majority of evidence from his trial remains sealed off to that case’s plaintiff: the American public.”

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown stated: “I am hopeful that the court will put a stop to the DEA’s flippant attitude towards the Freedom of Information Act.  The agency’s siege mentality in trying to wear out Mr. Eil through years of delays amounts to an appalling attack on the public’s right to know.”

The DEA (represented by the office of Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha), has until May 4th to respond to the ACLU’s motion, with rebuttal memos due in June and July. Oral argument will likely be heard before U.S. District Judge John McConnell, Jr. sometime later this year.

These filings take place during Sunshine Week, a week designated to educate the public about the importance of open government, and at a time of heightened criticism of President Barack Obama’s transparency record.  In 2015, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration had “set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them” in 2014. And, last week the Freedom of the Press Foundation reported that “the Obama administration – the self described ‘most transparent administration ever’ – aggressively lobbied behind the scenes in 2014 to kill modest Freedom of Information Act reform that had virtually unanimous support in Congress.”

Eil is an award-winning freelance journalist who served as the news editor and staff writer at the Providence Phoenix until the paper’s closing in 2014. He has since contributed to VICE, Salon, the Atlantic, Rhode Island Monthly, and elsewhere. He has conducted more than 100 interviews, across 19 states, for his book about the Volkman case.

Danilo Saccoccio, an Italian national who received his green card in November, is married to an American citizen and has two children who are also American citizens. When he sought to turn in his Italian driver’s license for a Rhode Island one, he was advised he was entitled to no language accommodations to take the test even though it is offered in two languages other than English. Although he has attended ESL classes for a short period of time since he has been here, and plans to attend more such classes when work and family duties allow it, Mr. Saccoccio speaks very limited English. Mr. Saccoccio avoids driving as much as possible, including to ESL classes, because he fears being stopped with only his Italian license.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires agencies receiving federal funding to provide individuals with limited English proficiency meaningful access to agency programs and services. Federal regulations implementing Title VI specifically cite driver’s license exams as a critical service subject to the law. However, the DMV has claimed it has no obligation to accommodate the LEP population beyond what it has already done for the Spanish and Portuguese population, and has refused to offer any sort of accommodation through oral interpretation or translation services for Italian-speaking LEP persons.

In the 15-page complaint filed with the DOJ, ACLU volunteer attorney Jennifer Doucleff notes that, according to Census data, the current Italian-speaking LEP population ranks as the fourth most populous in the state, amounting to 2,470 persons, and that there are more than 20,000 other LEP persons who would not be able to obtain a driver’s license under the DMV’s policy.  The ACLU complaint concludes:

“[The DMV’s] insistence that the DOJ Guidance does not apply to the situation of an LEP resident seeking to attain meaningful access to this vital service or to other aspects of the drivers’ license program, raises serious doubts as to compliance with its Title VI obligations with regard to its other programs and services, as well as its obligations to members of other language LEP populations in Rhode Island.”

The complaint calls on DOJ to step in and order the DMV comply with federal law and provide Mr. Saccoccio and others like him meaningful access to the agency’s services. Over the years, the ACLU has filed similar language access complaints against the Department of Human Services and the state Judiciary, leading to improved LEP access at those agencies.

ACLU of RI volunteer attorney Doucleff said today: “The DMV’s blatant disregard for the federal guidelines established precisely to prevent it from discriminating against LEP individual raises red flags as to whether the agency can possibly be providing Rhode Island’s growing LEP population with meaningful access to any of its programs and activities.  Moreover, the DMV’s refusal to provide any level of accommodation to Mr. Saccoccio so that he may access the driver’s licensing process is particularly alarming given that there are currently more than 20,000 LEP Rhode Islanders who, like Mr. Saccoccio, do not speak a language in which the driver’s license exam is offered.”

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown added: “DMV’s refusal to comply with this critical anti-discrimination law is inexcusable. By already accommodating Spanish and Portuguese speakers in the exam process, the agency has recognized that LEP individuals have the right to a driver’s license. It cannot shut the door on other residents just because they do not speak Spanish or Portuguese. We are hopeful that the Department of Justice will halt this inequity.”

The complaint is available online at http://riaclu.org/images/uploads/Saccoccio_DOJ_Complaint.pdf

This post is based on an ACLU press release.