Westchester DA Must Pay Back Dupe FOIL Fees

This article is one of several delayed by my 2023 relocation to Ireland. I clearing my archives by publishing older pieces like this one to catch up on work set aside during that transition.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (May 24, 2025) — As the publisher of Talk of the Sound, I have experienced how the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office engages in a practice that undermines the spirit of New York’s Freedom of Information Law: charging multiple requesters fees for the same records, a form of double, triple, or even quadruple dipping. This practice, evident in the handling of FOIL requests for Kamal Flowers’ records in 2020, turns the clerk’s office into a profit center, which it should not be.

The mindset of making FOIL requests as difficult, delayed, and expensive as possible must end — here is why.