Testimony from Carl Messineo of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, speaking before the Committee on the Judiciary of the D.C. Council on improper MPD escorts to celebrities

District of Columbia police officials are investigating police escorts given to 17 celebrities since 2002 to find out who approved them, whether they were reimbursable and if there was a legitimate need for them, Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday.

The MPD’s evasive responses have gone every which way, but straight. One wonders what it is that they are hiding. Citing “unusual circumstances,” they took an enlargement of time to respond and provide what should have been readily available information.

Thousands of pages of previously unreleased materials reveal that the U.S. government was paying Miami-based journalists who saturated the media with reports that were highly inflammatory and prejudicial to the Cuban Five.

What did distress me, however, was several days of muddle over what exactly was the D.C. police policy on supplying uniformed escorts to private citizens already privileged by prominence and wealth.

The federal grand jury in San Jose, California, will begin reviewing evidence tomorrow that includes computers and mobile phones seized from suspected leaders as prosecutors probe the coordinated so-called denial-of-service attacks.

The PCJF today issued its strong support for the Open Government Act of 2010. Carl Messineo, co-founder and attorney with the PCJF testified today at the hearing before the D.C. Council's Committee on Government Operations and the Environment.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has just obtained a massive disclosure of previously withheld documents governing police operations. The PCJF forced the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) filed a lawsuit on Sept. 9, 2009 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) because it has "unlawfully failed to disclose specific U.