Schuylkill County officials really didn’t want the “Halcovage video” to go public.
Despite in the end deciding not to appeal the decision of the state Open Records office that ordered the County to hand over this infamous video, before the 30-day window to appeal the OOR decision expired, it made an offer to the Ringtown resident who filed the original Right to Know request.
Doug Litwhiler shared a copy of an email he received on Oct. 28 prior to that deadline expiring on Thursday.
In it, County Solicitor Glenn Roth propositions Litwhiler to allow him to see the video and everyone goes away happy.
Roth “threw this out there” for Litwhiler’s consideration.
If Litwhiler agreed to withdraw his Right to Know request, the County Sheriff’s office would allow him to come to the Courthouse to view it. Litwhiler wouldn’t be allowed to walk away, if he had agreed to this deal, with a physical copy of the video.
Roth said if Litwhiler didn’t take this offer, the County was likely to file an appeal in the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas. That would stay the issue and push back the potential public release of the video until a court decision was reached.
The County’s offer was rejected and ultimately, the Courthouse decided against appealing the OOR decision which ordered its release on Nov. 5. It’s expected to hand over the video to Litwhiler on Friday morning.
The main reason the Courthouse doesn’t want to release the video, at least the reason they’re giving publicly, is that it compromises security at the home County government. The state rejected that claim when it approved Litwhiler’s appeal and ordered the County to release the footage.
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