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Confidential prisoner records found discarded in dumpster

October 20, 2010

By KAREN VELIE

A box of California Men’s Colony (CMC) prisoner files, containing private information such as psychological evaluations and social security numbers, was found in a dumpster at the Shell gas station on Madonna Road near Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo last week.

Government agencies and attorneys working on behalf of inmates are required by privacy laws to properly dispose of protected information. Prison employees shred the documents both horizontally and vertically at CMC before they dispose of records protected by the Privacy Act.

The Privacy Act provides for both civil and criminal penalties that include the leveling of fines and misdemeanor charges.

Last week, a homeless couple was searching for recyclables in a trash bin at the Shell gas station on Madonna Road near Highway 101 when they came across a box of Board of Prison Term files. The files contained the inmates’ past criminal history, psychological evaluations, social security numbers, reports about their behavior in prison and reports regarding their relationships with their families.

Each of the eight files describe an inmate who had been found guilty of murder. Some of the men have been paroled, others had their requests for release denied and one is waiting to have his case heard for the first time later this year.

After discovering the files had been dumped in a trash bin, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation mounted an investigation that determined the files had been given to San Luis Obispo based attorney Peter Ferguson. The local attorney had represented each of the inmate’s attempts to get paroled through the California Board of Prison Terms.

The private attorney said he thought his wife was responsible for putting the documents in the dumpster.

“I think my wife was cleaning out the car and she threw them out,” Ferguson said.

Government codes and the California State Bar require attorneys to protect their client’s privacy and properly dispose of documents.

“It is the duty of an attorney to maintain inviolate the confidence, and at every peril to himself or herself to preserve the secrets, of his or her client,” according to California Business and Professional Code 6068(e).


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Prisoner’s rights? Wake me sometime after treadmills are installed in every cell with output wired to the National Grid and daily quotas enforced by electrical wires clamped to testicles.


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Not everyone in prison is a murderer. Not everyone in prison is rightfully there – there are innocent people in prison – this has been proven over and over again with dna proof, and also when the police and district attorneys offices just want to clear their records and find someone guilty. They have been proven to create evidence, coerce statements from “witnesses”, and coerce please from innocent people, so don’t be so self righteous. Do you ever drink and drive, even just a little drink? If so, you could be in an accident where someone is killed and be found guilty of homicide, thrown into prison with drug dealers and murderers and then you’d see what happens in there. There isn’t any gym in the prisons that I have visited. That was removed years ago. They have exercise yards and they run and walk and that’s about it. They do have tvs in the dorms if you are in a level two or lower. If you are in a higher level your family has to send you a tv through a specified vendor. Don’t be so fast to think you know what’s going on in a prison until you have to visit someone in there. It could be your child or parent, or grandchild or just a good friend. You don’t always know who has been in prison or if a friend has a family member in prison. It’s not something that is talked about a lot.


As for this story, it does sound a little fishy to me. I don’t think the wife did it, and I don’t think the attorney did it. There is probably something else going on. Collusion happens in this world, especially in the gold old USA. Be aware, be very aware!


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Wake up !,,, “Do you ever drink and drive, even just a little drink? If so, you could be in an accident where someone is killed and be found guilty of homicide,” sounds like you do this, prisoner’s don’t have rights neither do juveniles, save some money, sell these docs, at the Pismo dunes, to start campfires. Use the money to feed the prisoners some sand witches with extra sand and hot mustard, you pretty much have to be a real creep to wide up in prison.


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Why does it sound so……

We’re going to put someone in jail for this……….

Oh, it’s this guy…. Never mind.


? Am I Dreaming ?


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Sounds like Parkinson when he claimed his wife ‘handles household money affairs’ about his unpaid taxes the went to liens. Nice when so called professionals throw their wives under the bus to evade responsibility.


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Blame the wife then kick the dog.


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Yes, I had the exact same thought, “it’s the wifes fault”. I sure hope someone didn’t ditch the files because “someone” is planning on paroling these guy’s. No records and no proof of how bad they really are.


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‘Cindy’ – your comments causes me to think that you’ve been watching too many episodes of shows like ‘Prison Break’. Besides, CMC has for worse problems to try to hide rather than publicly dumping records.


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You are taking things out of perspective..if you would have LISTENED to the forum, the question was whom in your household handles the finances…..Mr. Parkinson stated his wife does. That had NOTHING to do w/the unpaid tax issue. Keep it real people…quit digging for stuff and making lies out of nothing. It only makes you look as ignorant as you look in the mirror.


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I did hear the forum and he did blame his wife. You go listen to the forum.


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I’m referring to the question of who handles the finances, and ONLY that question, and I DID listen to it live. He didn’t “blame” his wife at all, he merely stated she handles the finances, just as I previously stated. If there was a question reference the taxes, I didn’t hear his answer, but I highly doubt he would or did “blame” his wife. That’s all I was saying.


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Are you saying that , based on what was heard on the forum, Parkinson admitted that it was he, not his wife, that allowed their taxes to go unpaid?? Or was it his wife because she is in charge of the household finances? Which is it, hmmm?


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Did the homeless call the police to report the files found in the dumpster? I somehow can’t believe they would do that. I also can’t believe the wife of an attorney would do this…you’d think confidential files would be familiar to her and she would leave them untouched…I also don’t buy what is being sold here.


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Maybe the attorneys wife was angry that her husband was fighting to get murders paroled and had actually been successful for some of them. According to the article, these were some very bad guys. If she took a look at the files and she was having a bad day, she probably threw the files where she felt they belonged!


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Lawyers throw away the darnedest things, aluminum miners remove the overburden while they work, this story makes perfect sense to me.


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Sorry, but I just don’t buy it.


For one, what attorney’s spouse is going to indiscriminately throw away obvious confidential files?


As it was mentioned in another post, why would anyone (in this case, the spouse), place sensitive information in a public-accessible dumpster?


Can’t dude clean out his own car messes?


Worse, who would do readily rat out their innocent spouse to…cover their own assets?


Guess the answer is obvious.


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I love that he blames his wife. I think this is the same guy who sat behind me in school and said that his dog ate his homework.


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It worked for Ian Parkinson! At first he denied paying his property tax late, and then he said it was his wife’s fault!


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NO HE DIDN’T….listen to the forum before you speak…you guys/gals floor me!!!!


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sloslo was referring to Parkinson’s interview with Congalton in May, and that’s exactly what happened. Listen to it yourself:


http://edbroadcasters.com/podcasts/congalton/05-10-10.mp3


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He shoud be disbarred.


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All I can say, is; had that been CMC that did that, heads would roll…Private shyster? No consequence…But had it been CMC dumping that shyster’s clients file, he would have been jumping up and down for justice..Ironic when there is no yip yapping on that side of the coin….


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I find it odd that an attorney’s wife had her husband’s files in her car and then chose to discard the trash at a gas station’s dumpster. Can’t afford trash pick up at their home?


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Why would the attoryney have confidential files in his car to begiin with…DUH!


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