Louisville PD Hid Thousands Of Records Detailing Officers' Abuse Of Minors, Deleted Backups When Local Paper Asked For Them

from the move-along-nothing-to-see-here dept

The people who are supposed to be the bulwark standing between regular society and criminal society are, far too often, criminals themselves. They promise they're doing everything they can to end the sexual exploitation of children but often aren't willing to address the exploitation committed by officers.

The Louisville Metro Police is still dealing with the fallout of a botched no-knock raid, which ended with officers killing Breonna Taylor in her own apartment. Six of the 32 bullets fired by LMPD officers -- some blindly through covered windows -- hit Taylor. No officers were charged in Taylor's death.

The PD is now dealing with another scandal involving its officers. Criminal charges have been brought against three officers who sexually abused minors participating in the PD's "Explorer Program."

A third Louisville Metro Police officer has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a juvenile in the department's now-defunct Explorer Program for youths aspiring to be in law enforcement.

A federal grand jury indictment accuses Brad Schuhmann, while acting as a police officer, of sexually abusing a minor in 2010, saying he "willfully deprived” a juvenile identified as Jane Doe “of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right not to have her bodily integrity violated by a person acting under color of law."

This side project of the Boy Scouts of America has produced nearly as many sexual abuse allegations as the Boy Scout program itself. What happened in Louisville isn't an aberration. Putting cops in close contact with minors appears to be a bad idea.

In recent decades, more than 100 police officers have had sex with Explorers they were entrusted with mentoring, the vast majority of them underage. In just the past year, two sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino, California, were arrested for having sex with underage girls; a New York City cop was charged with child sex abuse after sending racy text messages to a 15-year-old; an officer in Bremerton, Washington, was reprimanded for sleeping with an 18-year-old; and a former cop in Burlington, North Carolina, pled guilty to taking indecent liberties with a minor after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old he'd taken on ride-alongs.

That's from a 2011 report. There have been numerous other incidents since then. The Louisville Courier Journal's coverage of this current scandal -- which dates back to 2017 -- shows the problem infects law enforcement agencies around the nation.

In the wake of Louisville’s own Explorer scandal, in which two former officers have been accused of sexually abusing Scouts and the police department of covering it up, the Courier-Journal found that over the past 40 years, at least 137 girls and 26 boys have been allegedly raped, seduced, fondled, kissed, dated or otherwise exploited in 28 states by at least 129 law enforcement officers, firefighters and other advisers.

The youngest victims were 13. One was in the sixth grade.

One officer tried to set up three-way sex with Explorers. Another took surreptitious photographs of Explorers’ underwear. A third took bondage photos of boys he took on Civil War re-enactment camping trips. In Warick, Rhode Island, six officers had sex with one girl. In Bandon, Oregon, five officers made a sex tape featuring two girls and two boys.

Seventy-five cases resulted in criminal charges and 19 in lawsuits, including one that cost Irwindale, California, a city of only 1,422 people, $2.75 million to settle.

The latest twist in the LMPD's ongoing scandal is its apparently deliberate attempt to hide documents related to this abuse from journalists. And the department did this with the county and city's approval.

Louisville Metro Police concealed at least 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of Explorer Scouts by two officers — then lied to keep the files from the public, records show.

The Courier Journal last year requested all records regarding sexual abuse of minors by two officers in the Explorer Scout program for youths interested in law enforcement careers.

Police officials and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office said they couldn't comply, insisting all the records had been turned over to the FBI for its investigation.

But that wasn't true, according to records The Courier Journal recently obtained in the appeal of its open records case.

In fact, the department still had at least 738,000 records, which the city allowed to be deleted.

While it's true the FBI is in the middle of an investigation, the PD still had its own copies of those files on hand. Or, at least it did until the Courier Journal started asking for them. The PD then insisted it had turned everything over to the FBI. This assertion was backed up by the Assistant County Attorney. Supposedly, the FBI had "taken control" of everything, including any physical or digital copies the LMPD might have had on hand.

This assertion by County Attorney Annale Taylor was directly contradicted by the LMPD's own statements in emails to the attorney.

Three months earlier, in June, Louisville Sgt. Robert Banta, a task force member, had told Taylor in an email he could provide "any and all documents involved in the Explorer investigation up until April 1, 2017, when the federal investigation was initiated."

“All that information still resides in the PIU (Professional Integrity Unit) case file and is available to the county attorney’s office,” Banta said in his June 6, 2019, email, which he also sent to then-Chief Steve Conrad and LMPD legal adviser Dennis Sims.

And the denial any records still existed was contradicted by the county attorney's office in another email to the attorney general's office. This email said the LMPD had found thousands of documents in a "hidden folder." A letter sent to the paper's attorneys made it clear the PD had retained almost everything it had previously claimed the FBI was in sole possession of.

In an Oct. 21 letter to The Courier Journal's lawyers "amending previous factual statements made in error,” Assistant County Attorney Roy Denny acknowledged 9,700 folders containing 738,000 documents — 470 gigabytes of data — had been found on the secret folder.

The catch was these had been backed up to the city's servers, but only temporarily. These had been turned over to the FBI as well -- months after the paper had asked for them -- and wiped from city's backup.

The paper is now accusing the LMPD and city of destroying records. The county attorney office's legal representative, Kenyon Meyer, insists no destruction has occurred. The paper still has the option of demanding these records from the FBI.

Just little intra-government coverup, apparently. The city and PD seem more than willing to deal with accusations of records destruction and open records law violations if it means they won't immediately have to deal with whatever's in the thousands of files related to multiple officers' sexual abuse of minors. Sending these away to the FBI -- and deleting their own copies -- places the paper back at square one. It will take another set of FOIA requests -- and more litigation -- to acquire the records these two entities seemingly want buried.

Filed Under: louisville, louisville metro police, minors, police, records, transparency

Your Money Or Your Life: Louisville Cops, Prosecutors Dropping Hefty Trafficking Charges In Exchange For Seized Cash

from the participation-trophies-for-all-drug-war-participants dept

Law enforcement agencies like to portray asset forfeiture as an important weapon in the Drug War arsenal -- one capable of toppling cartels and kingpins. Every so often, a large amount of cash and drugs is trotted out in front of reporters as evidence of this claim.

The reality is much, much different. For all intents and purposes, civil asset forfeiture is a government crime of opportunity. Any search that yields cash is a win for the agencies that profit from the seizure, even when there's no evidence the cash taken has any link to criminal activity. Pretextual traffic stops, knock-and-talks, stop-and frisk programs… all of these have the potential to turn everyday police work into something profitable.

WFPL's examination of the Louisville (KY) Metro PD's asset forfeiture paperwork shows the agency isn't really targeting drug traffickers and criminal organizations with its seizures. It's just lifting money from whoever it can, like people who've done nothing more than produced an offensive odor. (You are not misreading that sentence.)

Theron Carson and his friends were smoking weed and playing video games when the police showed up at his door.

It was 1 a.m., and the officers told Carson someone complained about the smell. The quickest resolution of the problem, they told Carson, was to allow them to search his Newburg apartment.

After police found his weed and his digital scale, they emptied his wallet. Then they charged him with drug trafficking.

Carson, now 24, says he is not a drug dealer. The $1,200 police took was earned legally, he said, and a mix of rent money, bill money and cash he and his girlfriend socked away in preparation for their daughter's birth.

Carson wanted the money back. Prosecutors offered him a deal that would allow him to plead to a misdemeanor… but only if he surrendered all of the cash.

This is standard operating procedure for the LMPD and the prosecutors it works with. Any cash seized is treated essentially as a bribe arrestees didn't know they were offering. In 25% of the cases examined, charges were dropped in exchange for the LMPD keeping the money.

Local prosecutors pretend the money is not a motivator. They're apparently putting alleged criminals back on the street (minus their cash) because they're just so great at prosecutorial discretion... I guess.

Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas B. Wine said in an interview with KyCIR that losing cash is the “cost of doing business” if you’re caught with drugs and money, regardless of how the case is resolved.

“To somehow suggest that money is going to make a difference for any of us, at least here on the prosecution side, is ridiculous,” Wine said. “It’s not worth it for the prosecutors that I work with.”

So. Much. Discretion.

Wine estimates nearly 98 percent of cases his office prosecutes are settled with a plea deal.

But no profiting from cash grabs. No sir.

Kentucky law dictates that the police department keeps 85 percent of what it seizes, and the rest goes to the state’s prosecutors.

The LMPD seizes nearly $1 million in cash per year. It takes a while to add up when cops -- utilizing their training and expertise -- are able to turn almost anyone into a "drug trafficker" for the purposes of relieving them of their cash. According to WFPL's investigation, almost 40% of the seizures involved less than $1,000. And yet, officers taking property from arrestees tend to describe any amount of cash as "large" to better fit the drug trafficking narrative being pushed to create charges significant enough to be used as leverage against defendants and their natural desire to be reunited with their seized funds.

Police stopped a man in January 2017 for failing to use a turn signal while leaving “a high narcotics area,” according to an arrest citation. The officer reported smelling marijuana but didn’t find any; instead, a search netted a needle loaded with suspected meth, two pills and a “large amount of money”: $231.

An LMPD officer arrested a man suspected of selling synthetic marijuana at a west Louisville gas station in March 2017. In the arrest citation, the officer noted the man possessed a “large amount of lower denomination bills” in his wallet. The “large” amount of cash officers seized: $33.

These are the people prosecutors ring up on drug trafficking charges. And these are the ones whose cash they take to secure plea deals for lesser charges. Even then, the deliberately-broken system still doesn't work. The $33 kingpin listed above lost his cash and was convicted of drug trafficking.

One more data point: the LMPD's drug dogs are only "right" half the time.

In an analysis of 139 searches since Jan. 1, 2017, in which a dog indicated that drugs were present, 45% turned up no narcotics.

Cops don't know the drug dog is wrong until after the search is completed. The drug dog is really there to give officers permission to perform a warrantless search. On the dog green lights the search, anything discovered can be seized by officers, including whatever cash happens to be in the car or on the driver. A drug dog is a mobile warrant exception.

Programs where random citizens are relieved of cash just because they happen to be in possession of small amounts of drugs isn't going to stop the flow of drugs. They'll continue to flow as freely as citizens' cash into the accounts of the PD and prosecutors. No one's in any hurry to give up this revenue stream, even if law enforcement resources would be better used elsewhere.

Filed Under: asset forfeiture, asset seizure, cash, civil asset forfeiture, dropped cases, legalized theft, louisville, money, prosecutors

Google Pays $3.8 Million To Clean Up Its Fiber Mess In Louisville

from the disruption-180 dept

When Google Fiber launched in 2010, it was lauded as a game changer for the broadband industry. Google Fiber, we were told, would revolutionize the industry by taking Silicon Valley money and disrupting the viciously uncompetitive and anti-competitive telecom sector. Initially things worked out well; cities tripped over themselves offering all manner of perks to the company in the hopes of breaking free from the broadband duopoly logjam. And in markets where Google Fiber was deployed, prices dropped thanks to this added competition.

The fun didn't last. In late 2016 Alphabet began getting cold feet about the high costs and slow return of the project, and effectively mothballed the entire thing -- without admitting that's what they were doing. The company blew through several CEOs in just a few months, laid off hundreds of employees, froze any real expansion, and cancelled countless installations for users who had been waiting years. And while Google made a lot of noise about how it would be shifting from fiber to wireless to possibly cut costs, those promises so far appear stuck in neutral as well.

The mess created by this abrupt about face was felt most in cities like Louisville, which had tripped over themselves to please Google. After passing a bunch of new pole attachment rules and fending off an AT&T lawsuit over said rules, Google suddenly left the city high and dry, announcing last February they'd be retreating from the city. A big reason for that retreat is that Google subcontractors had screwed up the fiber microtrenching (burying fiber just a few inches below the road) it was using as an alternative to using city (and AT&T) utility poles.

There's plenty of animosity in Louisville about Google's sudden retreat, though the company made partial amends this week by paying $3.8 million in a bid to clean up the mess left in the company's wake:

"Google Fiber will pay $3.84 million to Louisville Metro Government (LMG) to restore roads and other public rights-of-way affected by its departing service in Louisville.

Louisville Metro Government and Google Fiber agreed to these payments to fulfill the company’s obligations under its franchise agreement and local regulations, which require restoration of rights-of-way should a service provider end service in Louisville. Citing technical challenges, Google Fiber announced its exit from Louisville in February."

Google also wound up paying a $150,000 cash donation to the Community Foundation of Louisville’s Digital Inclusion Fund to support local digital education efforts.

While that closes the book on Louisville's fiber aspirations, Google still has a problem on its hands. It's clear to everybody watching that the company no longer is really interested in disrupting telecom, but publicly keeps trying to tell customers and the press that nothing has truly changed. But with the company's fiber efforts frozen and its wireless pivot apparently going nowhere (in fact it appears to have shrunk since it acquired Webpass), Google needs to either come clean about its waning interest (and likely sell the project off) or explain why -- if the project is still important to the company -- the entire effort has been stuck in neutral for several years.

Filed Under: google fiber, louisville, mess
Companies: google

Google Fiber Leaves Louisville As Alphabet Retreats From Telecom

from the not-the-revolution-that-was-advertised dept

When Google Fiber launched in 2010, it was lauded as a game changer for the broadband industry. Google Fiber would, we were told, revolutionize the industry by taking Silicon Valley money and disrupting the viciously uncompetitive and anti-competitive telecom sector. Initially things worked out well; cities tripped over themselves offering all manner of perks to the company in the hopes of breaking free from the broadband duopoly logjam. And in markets where Google Fiber was deployed, prices certainly dropped thanks to Google Fiber market pressure. The free marketing courtesy of press coverage was endless.

That was then, this is now.

In late 2016 Alphabet began getting cold feet about the high costs and slow return of the project, and effectively mothballed the entire thing -- without admitting that's what they were doing. The company blew through several CEOs in just a few months, laid off hundreds of employees, froze any real expansion, and cancelled countless installations for users who had been waiting years. And while Google made a lot of noise about how it would be shifting from fiber to wireless to possibly cut costs, those promises so far appear stuck in neutral as well.

Meanwhile, Google Fiber's fiber network continues to shrink. Last week, the company penned a blog post stating it would be cancelling its entire build in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the post, the company experienced what it's calling some "challenges" that have forced it to retreat from the city after spending the last two years deploying fiber:

"When we launched Fiber service in Louisville in October 2017, we noted at the time that it was the fastest we’ve ever moved from construction announcement to signing up customers. That’s because we were trialing a lot of things in Louisville, including a different type of construction method — namely, placing fiber in much shallower trenches than we’ve done elsewhere. Innovating means learning, and sometimes, unfortunately, you learn by failing. In Louisville, we’ve encountered challenges that have been disruptive to residents and caused service issues for our customers."

Google Fiber doesn't come out and say this in its blog post, but part of the company's challenges in Louisville were thanks to AT&T, which sued Louisville in a bid to prevent it from using city utility poles, about 40% of which are owned by AT&T. The city passed an ordinance requested by Google that would have sped up utility-pole attachment, then had to spend $300K to defend itself from AT&T. AT&T ultimately lost that suit, but not before Google Fiber was forced to shift tactics and embrace a practice called "microtrenching," which involves burying fiber a few inches below the road.

If you check out the link Google Fiber links to, you'll notice that this didn't go particularly well in Louisville, either because of substandard contractors or substandard sealant materials used to cover up the fiber post burial. Normally, a company dedicated to a business model and a community would just go back in and pony up the cost to repair the flawed installations. But given Alphabet and Google Fiber's clear disinterest in their once-promising business, Google Fiber instead chose to simply give up:

"We’re not living up to the high standards we set for ourselves, or the standards we’ve demonstrated in other Fiber cities. We would need to essentially rebuild our entire network in Louisville to provide the great service that Google Fiber is known for, and that's just not the right business decision for us."

To be clear, Alphabet executives knew very well that disrupting an entrenched monopoly-dominated business model and building a nationwide fiber network would be expensive and time consuming. But to also be clear, the Alphabet and Google of 2019 is far from the Google of a decade ago that first built this plan. Modern Google/Alphabet is far less interested in disruption and far more interested in legacy turf protection (witness its abrupt about face on net neutrality, for example). As we've seen on countless fronts, this simply isn't the same Google it once was.

And while it's perfectly fine that the company lost its nerve to fund a toe to toe battle with the entrenched and broken broadband industry, its refusal to simply admit as much is annoying impacted communities. Google Fiber PR folks are engaged in a lot of language about how they're "still dedicated" to the project, despite the fact it has been effectively mothballed. And while Google may eventually successfully pivot to wireless, it seems just as likely that the entire project is chopped up and sold in a few years. Likely to one of the incumbent providers Google Fiber and Alphabet once promised to disrupt.

Filed Under: broadband, competition, fiber, google fiber, louisville
Companies: google

Judge Kills AT&T's Attempt To Thwart Google Fiber Competition In Louisville

from the defenders-of-the-status-quo dept

There's plenty of methods incumbent ISPs use to keep broadband competition at bay, from buying protectionist state laws to a steady supply of revolving door regulators and lobbyists with a vested interest in protecting the status quo. This regulatory capture goes a long way toward explaining why Americans pay more money for slower broadband than most developed nations. Keeping this dysfunction intact despite a growing resentment from America's under-served and over-charged broadband consumers isn't easy, and has required decades of yeoman's work on the part of entrenched duopolies and their lobbyists.

Case in point: Google Fiber recently tried to build new fiber networks in a large number of cities like Nashville and Louisville, but ran face first into an antiquated utility pole attachment process. As it stands, when a new competitor tries to enter a market, it needs to contact each individual ISP to have them move their own utility pole gear. This convoluted and bureaucratic process can take months, and incumbent ISPs (which often own the poles in question) often slow things down even further by intentionally dragging their feet.

So in cities like Nashville and Louisville, Google Fiber and other competitors have pushed for so-called "one touch make ready" utility pole reform. These reforms let a licensed an insured contractor move any ISP's pole-mounted gear if necessary (usually a matter of inches), as long as the ISP is notified in advance and the contractor pays for any damages. Under these regulatory reforms, the pole attachment process can be reduced from six months or more to just a month or so -- dramatically speeding up fiber deployment. ISPs like Verizon (in part because Google Fiber isn't encroaching on their East Coast turf) has supported the changes.

But because this would speed up competitor broadband deployments as well, incumbent ISPs like AT&T and Charter did what they do best: they filed lawsuits against both Nashville and Louisville -- claiming they'd exceeded their legal authority in updating the rules. The companies proclaim they're simply concerned about the potential damage to their lines (ignored is the fact that the contractors doing the work are often the same people employed by ISPs), but the lawsuits are driven by one thing: fear of competition.

In Louisville, things haven't worked out very well for AT&T, with a Judge recently declaring that the ISP's claim that Louisville had somehow exceeded its authority doesn't make any legal sense:

"AT&T claimed that Louisville has no jurisdiction under federal or state law to regulate pole attachments, an argument that the district court judge picked apart. AT&T argued that the rule referred to in-court documents as Ordinance No. 21 "impermissibly regulates the terms and conditions of pole attachments," but in doing so AT&T "narrowly characterize[d] Ordinance No. 21 as one that regulates pole attachments," the judge wrote. In reality, "the ordinance actually prescribes the 'method or manner of encumbering or placing burdens on' public rights-of-way," Hale wrote.

"Kentucky's state Public Service Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over regulation of rates and services of utilities, but cities are allowed to "regulate local utilities in every area except as to rates and service," the judge wrote.

That's good news for Louisville and people looking for beefed up broadband competition, but the damage is still done, and the delay still benefited AT&T (who'll likely appeal) all the same. Google Fiber wound up being forced to consider a pivot to wireless in Louisville after the company's efforts to deploy gigabit-capable fiber in the city took notably longer than expected. Thanks, in large part, to large incumbent ISPs like AT&T, which at one point publicly mocked Google Fiber's struggles while omitting its lawyers were a major reason for the delays in the first place.

Filed Under: broadband, google fiber, louisville
Companies: at&t, google

FCC Lends Support To Google Fiber, Louisville In Fight To Access AT&T Utility Poles

from the beaten-by-bureaucracy dept

As we've been discussing, the hot new broadband battleground is the boring old utility pole. In most existing markets, a new competitor needs the incumbent ISP to move their gear and "make ready" the pole before a competitor can attach their own fiber. With every incentive to slow new competition, incumbent ISPs have long (ab)used this bureaucracy to their advantage. As a result, this preparation can take the better part of a year, especially if gear from multiple incumbents needs moving.

In a recent Google Fiber blog post, the company documented the end result of this logjam. In Nashville, the company noted that of the 88,000 poles in Nashville needed to deploy Google Fiber, over 44,000 will require make-ready work -- but only 33 had been adequately prepped by incumbent ISPs. In response, Google Fiber has been pushing cities like Nashville and Louisville to pass "one touch make ready" rules, which allow an insured, third-party contractor to move any ISP's gear (often a matter of inches), provided they give the incumbent ISP a 15-day heads up.

Unsurprisingly, the response from incumbent ISPs like AT&T and Comcast has been to breathlessly claim that their Constitutional rights are being violated, that Google Fiber is getting preferential treatment, and that these reform rules will result in a dramatic spike in internet outage (despite the fact that some incumbent ISPs often use these exact same contractors for pole work). They've also been quick to file lawsuits claiming that these cities are exceeding their authority and in some instances violating federal pole attachment rules.

In Kentucky, Google Fiber and Louisville this week got an unexpected ally in the FCC, which submitted a statement of interest (pdf) in Kentucky court effectively pointing out that AT&T and Comcast's arguments are nonsensical (at least in Kentucky). According to the FCC, while it does have federal pole attachment rules, Kentucky was one of 20 states to have opted out of those requirements in order to implement their own rules:

"BellSouth maintains in its motion for summary judgment that the Louisville Ordinance conflicts with, and is therefore preempted by, the federal pole-atachment rules promulgated by the Commission under Section 224. That argument is wrong as a mater of law. The federal pole-atachment regulations do not apply in Kentucky because Kentucky has filed a certification invoking reverse-preemption under Section 224(c) and has thereby opted out of the federal pole-atachment rules.

That said, AT&T's lawsuit against Louisville also claims that Louisville's new rules violate Kentucky state law. As we've long noted, companies like AT&T have so much influence on state legislatures that they're often allowed to quite literally write telecom law that specifically hinders competition, as they've done in states like Missouri and Tennessee, regarding municipal broadband. For those playing along at home, these are the same incumbent ISPs that whine endlessly about "burdensome regulations," unless they're the ones writing said regulations to hamstring competitors.

All told, this sort of bureaucratic protectionism is one of several reasons Google Fiber executives are pondering a pivot to next-generation wireless.

Filed Under: fcc, google fiber, louisville, one touch make ready, otmr, utility poles
Companies: at&t, comcast, google

Charter Joins AT&T In Using Lawsuits To Try And Slow Down Google Fiber

from the glass-mansions dept

For decades, incumbent broadband ISPs have all but owned state legislatures, often to the point where they're quite literally allowed to write awful state law that actively harms state consumers. That's why it has proven amusing to see these same ISPs cry like petulant children at Google Fiber's disruption of the uncompetitive broadband market. AT&T, for example, has sued Louisville and Nashville for passing pole attachment reform that would speed up broadband deployment, all while claiming that doing so gives Google Fiber an unfair advantage.

Enter freshly-mega-merged Charter Communications, which has also now filed a different lawsuit against Louisville (pdf) under a Charter-owned subsidiary named Insight Kentucky Partners II -- claiming that its Constitutional rights are being violated. Why? Because Lousiville struck a better franchise deal with Google Fiber than the one Charter signed years ago. Charter tries to defend saddling Louisville with a lawsuit using basketball metaphors in comments to the Louisville Courier Journal:

"The current situation is like requiring the University of Louisville to use the NBA 3-point line, while its opponents use the closer college line," said Mike Pedelty, a Charter spokesman. "More burdensome regulation inevitably means a higher cost to do business and ultimately higher prices for customers. We're simply asking the court to ensure the equal treatment state and federal law require."

Here's the thing though: Google Fiber got a better franchise deal from the city because it asked for it -- and because it promised to deliver gigabit broadband competition to the city. There's a reason cities are throwing themselves (and better deals) at Google Fiber, and Charter hopes you'll forget it's because Charter just doesn't try very hard thanks to little competition and the regulatory capture it spent 30 years lobbying for. Charter could negotiate a better deal once its current franchise contract expires, but hopes that legal threats will allow the cable giant to get out of its obligations more quickly.

Charter's lawsuit also again tries to claim that pole attachment reform -- often used by incumbent ISPs as yet another way to slow new market entrants (there's more detail here) -- will cause all manner of horrible technical and PR harm to larger ISPs:

The One-Touch procedures also could allow Insight’s competitors (intentionally or unintentionally) to damage or disrupt Insight’s ability to serve its customers, creating an inaccurate perception in the market about Insight’s service quality and harming its goodwill. These procedures also threaten public safety as Insight is responsible for providing service to critical infrastructure in Louisville Metro, in addition to its customers’ access to 911 and other emergency services. And they intrude upon the exclusive jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission of Kentucky to regulate the use of privately-owned utility poles.

It's certainly understandable that Charter wants the same deal that Google Fiber is getting, and it's all but inevitable it would have gotten it. But it's disingenuous and obnoxious to spend a generation lobbying for and enjoying regulatory capture -- only to whine once an actual competitor comes to town and begins dismantling the status quo. Charter could just get to work competing with Google Fiber -- but as one of the least liked companies in any industry in America -- it apparently feels that it makes much more sense to whine and litigate.

Filed Under: broadband, fiber, google fiber, kentucky, louisville
Companies: charter communications, google

AT&T Sues To Keep Google Fiber Competition Out Of Louisville

from the delay-tactics dept

We recently noted how the city of Louisville had voted 23-0 to let Google Fiber bring ultra-fast broadband competition to the city. As part of the vote, the city revamped its utility pole-attachment rules, which previously forced competitors through a six-month bureaucratic process to connect to the poles, an estimated 40% of which are owned by AT&T. The new policy streamlines that down to one month, letting competitors like Google Fiber move hardware already attached to the poles, while holding them financially accountable for any potential damages.

While this is in effect the "reduction of burdensome regulations" most telecom execs spend the better part of an adult life crying for, in this case local incumbent broadband providers AT&T and Time Warner Cable whined like petulant children about Louisville's decision, because it would force them to seriously compete in the market. Time Warner Cable went so far as to claim Louisville's decision violated the company's Constitutional rights.

AT&T being AT&T, the company has also now filed a federal lawsuit (pdf), claiming that Louisville lacks the authority to make those kinds of decisions:

"Louisville Metro Council’s recently passed 'One Touch Make Ready' Ordinance is invalid, as the city has no jurisdiction under federal or state law to regulate pole attachments. We have filed an action to challenge the ordinance as unlawful. Google can attach to AT&T’s poles once it enters into AT&T’s standard Commercial Licensing Agreement, as it has in other cities. This lawsuit is not about Google. It’s about the Louisville Metro Council exceeding its authority."

Of course it has everything to do with Google, and delaying the company's deployment of a service that would force AT&T into the strange position of having to compete on price and speed.

According to AT&T, only the Kentucky Public Service Commission and the Federal Communications Commission can make those kinds of decisions. AT&T lawyers trying to argue FCC's jurisdictional authority is amusing, given AT&T's spent the better part of the last decade trying to argue the regulator has no authority over broadband whatsoever. AT&T's worry about legal procedure is equally entertaining, given that this is a company that in the last few years has been busted for defrauding the deaf, defrauding the poor, and defrauding its own customers by making it easier for crammers to rip them off.

For good measure, AT&T's also claiming that letting third-party contractors touch its utility poles and gear would cause "irreparable harm":

AT&T alleges in the suit that the city ordinance allows third parties to temporarily seize its property without consent and in most circumstances without prior notice. "Unless the court declares the ordinance invalid and permanently enjoins Louisville Metro from enforcing it, AT&T will suffer irreparable harm that cannot be addressed by recovery of damages."

Of course, by "seizing" AT&T's property, AT&T actually means "letting a company move our gear a few inches" so other people can use the poles. AT&T's real goal, of course, is to bog Google Fiber down in lawsuits so the telco can get a head start in locking locals down in long-term contracts. That's a lot easier than actually upgrading its network and competing with a new market entry.

Filed Under: competition, google fiber, lawsuits, louisville
Companies: at&t, google

AT&T, Time Warner Cable Hope Incessant Whining Will Keep Google Fiber From Louisville

from the protecting-the-status-quo dept

For fifteen years now, companies like AT&T and Time Warner Cable (and their various PR and policy tendrils) have whined incessantly about the "burdensome regulations" that saddle the U.S. broadband industry. Less regulation, they argue, will pave the path to broadband nirvana, opening the door to immense innovation and more competition in the sector. So Louisville recently set about reworking its city broadband ordinances to streamline both the pole attachment and franchise agreement processes dramatically, something you'd assume would thrill both companies.

Yet both companies have spent the last month whining incessantly about the move. Why? Because it will open the door to competition from Google Fiber:

"Time Warner is also questioning if the city has the legal authority to regulate equipment attached to utility poles, saying that power is given to the Kentucky Public Service Commission. Gillespie adds the city would also be violating Time Warner's constitutional rights by allowing others to take possession of their property...In a separate letter sent Thursday morning, AT&T Kentucky President Hood Harris also said the measure infringes their agreement and “would likely disrupt the service our customers receive.” The vast majority of utility poles in the city are owned by either AT&T or Louisville Gas & Electric."

As it stands, it can take up to six months to get these companies to sign off on letting a competitor access city poles (AT&T owns around 40% of them in Louisville) and move (sometimes a matter of inches) equipment if necessary. That can create the perfect opportunity for an incumbent carrier to intentionally stall a competitors' plans, something Google Fiber says it has experienced in a number of markets. In fact Google Fiber has argued that Title II, held up by carrier lobbyists as the pinnacle of "burdensome regulation," helps speed up pole attachment disputes in many markets.

The new proposal now lets any company (including Time Warner Cable and AT&T) sign a single franchise agreement, replacing the 80 different cross county agreements needed previously. Louisville's new proposal also streamlines the entire pole attachment process to around 30 days and, to counter any ISP concerns about equipment damage, requires that Google Fiber be held financially liable for any problems. Eager for something vaguely resembling competition, the city has voted 23-0 on the proposal over the continued objections of Time Warner Cable and AT&T:

"The ordinance is simply unworkable," said Gardner Gillespie, an attorney who is representing Time Warner. "It does not provide any meaningful way for TWC to know what changes have been made to its existing facilities or to assure any damage is promptly cured." AT&T added the plan violates their union agreements with workers on who has a right to install or alter their equipment but members said they believe allowing for an easier installation process will result in more jobs for those type of workers."

In short, both companies threw every legal argument they could at the city council in the hopes of thwarting Google Fiber's expedited arrival in the city. And while historically whining and campaign contributions have been enough to keep status-quo-protecting regulations in place, the desperate desire for better broadband is finally breaking the stranglehold these companies have enjoyed over local government. As a result, Louisville's now going to get gigabit broadband from a third provider, and AT&T and Time Warner Cable find themselves on unfamiliar ground: having to actually compete on speed, customer service, and price. Terrifying.

Filed Under: broadband, competition, google fiber, louisville, pole attachments
Companies: at&t, google, time warner cable

How Dr. Seuss's Lawyers Ruined Christmas

from the no-whoville-in-lousville dept

Thanks to both Eric and Gunnar who simultaneously sent in the news of lawyers representing Dr. Seuss's estate who threatened the town of Louisville, Kentucky with a lawsuit if they didn't stop a planned "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"-themed celebration as a part of its Light Up Louisville holiday event. The lawyers pointed out that the characters are copyrighted, and could not be used. Legally, they may be correct, but as Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson pointed out: "It appears these lawyers' hearts are two sizes too small." Given the very subject matter, and the joy which Dr. Seuss stories bring to kids, you would have thought that the lawyers might think twice on this one. Apparently not. I'm sure that all the Grinch-themed aspects of the celebration probably would have made new Seuss fans out of many kids, but apparently, Dr. Seuss' estate would prefer that not happen.

Filed Under: christmas, copyright, dr. seuss, grinch, louisville