The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Florida), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed an appeals court ruling the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office improperly withheld public records related to a program targeting “problem people” and “at-risk youths” and is required to pay CAIR-Florida’s attorney fees for its challenge to the office’s actions.
CAIR-Florida filed a lawsuit in 2022 seeking to force the sheriff’s office to provide records related to its “Intelligence Led Policing” program and won that litigation the same year, but the trial court struck the prevailing party attorney fees, so CAIR-Florida appealed and won on the issue of fees.
SEE: Pasco Sheriff’s Office ordered to pay fees for targeting “problem people,” “at-risk youths”
CAIR-FL: Pasco Sheriff Ordered to Pay Legal Fees After Suppressing Public Records – Flager Live
In a statement, CAIR-Florida Communications Director Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said: “We welcome this ruling and the previous win in this case and hope law enforcement agencies get the message that they must be open and transparent.”
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CONTACT: Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, CAIR-Florida Communications Director, wruiz@cair.com, (305) 502-6749; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com