Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/fullerton-records-lawsuit/)
In updated filings, Fullerton City attorneys have now significantly reduced the list of alleged secret city hall documents the city accused resident and blogger Joshua Ferguson of illegally downloading in a lawsuit filed against him and the blog earlier this year.
Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker is disputing that the City Council took a formal vote in September to sue local blogger Joshua Ferguson, and the blog he contributes to, for publishing secret city hall documents and seeking a publication gag against him and the blog.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals has temporarily suspended an OC Superior Court judge’s order barring resident Joshua Ferguson, and the blog he writes for, from publishing secret Fullerton city hall documents. The blog has already published documents shedding light on how former City Manager Joe Felz dodged a potential DUI after drinking and crashing his car in 2016.
Fullerton Resident and blogger Joshua Ferguson gained a national ally in his appeal against an OC Judge’s order barring him and the blog from publishing secret city hall documents after the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a support document on Ferguon’s appeal, calling the publication gag a Constitutional violation and the city accusations a “brazen misuse” of federal or state hacking laws by the City of Fullerton to target routine newsgathering activities.
Joshua Ferguson, is fighting a judge’s decision to bar him and the blog, Friends for Fullerton’s Future, from publishing secret city hall documents.
Local blog Friends for Fullerton’s Future and resident Joshua Ferguson have been ordered by an OC Superior Court judge to stop publishing confidential city documents. The move comes within a week of Ferguson suing the city for allegedly failing to produce police misconduct and other records. A full hearing on the issue is scheduled for Nov. 21.
Fullerton city attorneys are asking an OC Superior Court judge to keep local resident Joshua Ferguson, and the blog he writes for, from deleting confidential records and to appoint someone to look through electronics to find the records. Ferguson filed a public records lawsuit against the city last week.
Fullerton may have to produce records that could show why former City Manager Joe Felz didn’t get arrested for driving under the influence following his 2016 election night car crash after a lawsuit demanding those records, along with numerous others, was filed by local resident Joshua Ferguson.