I received a letter from the Inspector General of the Department Agriculture stating that an investigation was complete and providing the report number. Their letter advised me that I could request a copy through FOIA.

When I requested the investigation report through FOIA, I was denied a copy. Their reply dated March 16, 2001 follows:

This is in response to your February 7, 2001, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was received in our FOIA office on February 14, 2001. You are requesting a copy of a hotline complaint file number PS-0899-3080 that you filed with the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Lacking an individual's consent, proof of death, or an overriding public interest, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Forest Service investigative or law enforcement records requested by a third party, on a specific named or identifiable individual(s), when even acknowledgement of such records would likely cause an unwarranted invasion of an individual's privacy, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6).

The FOIA provides you the right to appeal my decision to neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request. Any appeal must be made in writing to the Chief, USDA, Forest Service, P.O. Box 96090, Mail Stop 1143, Washington, DC 20090-6090, within 45 days from the date of this letter. The term "FOIA APPEAL" should be placed in capital letters on the front of the envelope.

Sincerely,
Kim Thorsen
Deputy Director
Law Enforcement and Investigation

I believe I wrote them a letter back stating that there is an overriding public interest, but they have stonewalled me.

I encourage anyone who has an interest to do their best to obtain this report. This report could be very damaging to Ranger Nelson and Mike Castro.

If we all write and insist that this is of great public interest, we can eventually obtain this report.