IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Ruben M. Collazo, :

Petitioner :

:

v. : No. 1728 C.D. 2016 : Submitted: April 7, 2017 Pennsylvania State Police, :

Respondent :

OPINION NOT REPOR T ED

MEMORANDUM OPINION PER CURIAM FILED: May 17, 2017

Ruben M. Collazo (Petitioner)

, pro se , petitions for review of a

determination of the Office of Open Records (OOR), which concluded that items

requested by Petitioner did not exist in the possession, custody, or control of the

Pennsylvania State Police ( PSP ) , and further that specific surveillance footage

requested by Petitioner relates to an on going criminal investigation.

On Decemb er 17, 2010, Petitioner was excluded from entering the Mt.

Airy Casino. Subsequently, on November 29, 2013, h e was charged with

trespassing as a result of his violation of the exclusionary order. On June 20, 2014,

Petitioner was seen entering the casino and was observed gaming at a slot machine.

Petitioner was confronted by a Mt. Airy Casino security officer, and Petitioner

refused to provide his name and further advised that he had no identification upo n

him. After being detained, Petitioner was positively identified by video

surveillance and by the Pennsylvania vehicle registration GKJ3475, whic h is

registered to Petitioner. He was subsequently arrested and charged with trespass.2 Following this inc ident, Petition er submitted a Right to Know Law 1

(RTKL) Request to the PSP seeking surveillance video footage and other records

relating to what transpired at Mt. Airy Casino. The request sought:

1. All video surveilla nce footage download[ed] to PSP

BGE Mt . Airy Folder

2. All documents relating to the identity o f the
“unidentified female” who identified the accused

3. All docume nts related to the identity of “Fluff” as highlighted in the attached document D

(OOR Determination at 1

- 2.) PSP denied Petitio ner’s request and Petitioner

appealed the denial to OOR. OOR denied Petitioner’s appeal and Petitioner

petitioned this Court for review of OOR’s final determination

. 2

In a rambling and argumentative brief, Petitioner alludes that his

exclusion from the casino is a result of a vast conspiracy between Louis DeNaples;

a potpourri of elected officials , both dead and alive ; Lisa Ferguson, Deputy Open

Records Officer; Corporal Sandra DeAndrea; as well as an unknown female

identified as “Fluffy” or “Fluff.”

In Petitioner’s amended brief 3 , he claims that “ [w] hat we are dealing

with here, is a pure case of malicious criminal prosecution on behalf of billionaire

1 Act of February 14, 2008, P.L. 6, 65 P.S. §§ 67.101

- 67.3104.

2 Our scope of review under the RTKL is plenary and our standard of review is de novo ; we may substitute our own findings of fact for that of the agency or rely upon the record created below. Bowling v. Office of Open Records , 75 A.3d 453, 477 (Pa. 2013).

3 On February 2, 2017, Petitioner filed a motion seeking to amend pages (ii), (3), (4 ), and the signature page (9) of his brief. This Court granted Petitioner’s motion to amend by February 28,
2017 order. Petitioner filed his amended brief on March 10, 2017, and on March 13, 2017 filed a3

Louis DeNaples, pursuant to Pennsy lvania Mafia Support Policy (PM SP), a policy

codified in Pennsylvania Horse Race Development and Gaming Act. (Act 71).” 4

(Petitioner’s Amended Brief at 7.)

This accusatory theme continues in the final paragraph of a pleading

entitled, “Petitioner’s Answer to Respondent Brief Dated Fe bruary 24, 2017,”

which states:

Al Capone must be turning over in his grave. Alp honse

might say that running a “speakeasy” in Pennsylvania today is a piece of cake. All I need to do is hand over a $50 million check to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control
Boa rd and I’ll be back in business in no time. It’s no longer called the “protection racket.” I get to pay off State Police, Gaming Regulators, Office of Attorney General, State Liquor agents all above board, and in turn they protect my joint. I also pay o ff my senior partner the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who gets 54% of slots and 14% of tables, and like Louis Denaples I will be a highly respected local bus inessman. Like I always said: “ Som e call it bootlegging. Some call it
racke teering. I call it a business!”

(Petitioner’s Answer to Respondent Brief at 6.)

second motion to amend seeking to have the “addend um” filed with his amended brief made part of the record. By March 20, 2017 order this Court permitted PSP to file a motion to strike or a supplemental brief addressing the “addendum” to Petitioner’s amended brief. On March 29,
2017, PSP filed a motion t o strike Petitioner’s “addendum” because, inter alia , the “addendum” exceeded the scope of this Court’s order granting Petitioner’s motion to amend and the “addendum” contained irrelevant and impertinent matter. Having reviewed PSP’s motion to

strike and Petitioner’s answer thereto, we grant the motion to strike the “addendum” to Petitioner’s amended brief for exceeding the scope of this Court’s order permitting Petitioner to

file an amended brief.

4 Petitioner is referring to the Act of July 5, 2004, P.L. 572, 4 Pa. C.S. §§ 1101

- 1904 , the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, commonly known as the “Gaming

Act

. ”4 In his amended brief, Petitioner presents 18 issues, none of which

were preser ved in the record below. As to Petitioner’s RTKL Request, this Court

concludes that OOR properly determined all vi deo surveillanc e footage

downloaded to the PSP

- BGE Mt

. Airy folder relates to an ongoing criminal

investigation. See Section 708(b)(16) of the RTKL, 65 P.S. § 67.708(b)(16).

Although the surveillance video was originally obtained from the Mt. Airy Casino

,
it was assembled as a part of a criminal investigation an d, therefore, contains

investigative material related to a criminal investigation. See Office of Open

Records v. Pennsylvania State Police , 146 A.3d 814, 818 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2016).

Further, OOR co rrectly determined that records responsive to items 2

and 3 of Petitioner’s request did not exist with in PSP’s possession, custody, or

control. See Section 901 of the RTKL, 65 P.S. § 67.901. Petitioner was provided

with the verification of Ms. Lisa Ferg uson, made under penalty of perjury, which

stated that the PSP did not have in its possession the identification of any specific

identifiers of the accused , nor did they know the identification of the unidentifiable

female, “Fluff,” or “Fluffy” who initial ly reported Petitioner’ s presence in the

casino. See Sherry v. Radnor Twp. Sch. Dist. , 20 A.3d 515, 520

- 21 (Pa. Cmwlth.

2011); Moore v. Office of Open Records , 992 A.2d 907, 909 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2010).

Therefore, the final determination of the OOR is affir med

.IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Ruben M. Collazo, :

Petitioner :

:

v. : No. 1728 C.D. 2016

: Pennsylvania State Police, :

Respondent :

PER CURIAM O R D E R

AND NOW , this 17 th day of May , 2017, the Pennsylvania State

Police’s motion to strike the “addendum” filed with Ruben M. Collazo’s amended

brief is GRANTED and the final determination of the Of fice of Open Records is

AFFIRMED

.