AUGUSTA, Maine -- For the first time in United States history, the Supreme Court of the United States may decide “Whether licensed humane societies and animal shelters are a public agency for purposes of public records requests when they have written contracts to perform animal welfare law enforcement duties in conjunction with and on behalf of the state, local municipalities and police departments, if its shelter services are government services and its facilities public accommodations for purposes of Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and if its Animal Control Officers and other personnel are state actors for purposes of 42 U.S. Code § 1983?
This controversy took its first breath on September 18, 2012 when Gina Turcotte called the Waterville Maine Police Department and was instructed to call the Humane Society Waterville Area for help to recover her service animal from the backyard of the Budget Host Hotel on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville after being illegally evicted the previous day and threatened with arrest by the hotel manager, Patel Umesh, because GinA refused to produce certification or documentation that her cat, Smokey, was a service animal when she attempted to pay for a 4th day at the hotel.
Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frN8K6yXMmQ
When GinA called the Humane Society Waterville Area on September 18, 2012 to report her missing service animal and ask for help to locate him, the Humane Society employee expressly indicated she was making a report of the information GinA was providing and would make immediate contact with GinA if anyone brought her cat to their shelter.
GinA called the Humane Society every day for the next several days asking if the cat had been surrendered to their care. Each time GinA was told no.
On September 22, GinA gave the employee a website address to a public notice on craigslist.org with pictures of the cat and other identifying information which GinA asked the Humane Society employee to download, print and include in their shelter records. GinA expressly asked the employee to take copies of the photographs which were posted on the website so they would have pictures for reference when cats were brought to their shelter. The employee indicated they would fully comply with GinA‘s requests, they understood the cat was a service animal, and that GinA was not surrendering her legal title or right to possess her cat at any time to anybody for any reason.
These pivotal material facts have never been denied by the Humane Society.
The Humane Society never contacted GinA to tell her Smokey had been brought to their shelter and then on January 4, 2013, at 4:38pm, Humane Society took a photograph of GinA‘s cat and published it on Facebook with the caption, “Shamoo has been adopted!” GinA saw the photograph and made her first comment three hours later at 7:48pm, stating,
“I think this is my cat Smokey who was lost in Waterville earlier this year. I have not stopped looking for him and have checked your adoption page many times and have not seen his picture out there; as a matter of fact I just looked for him again the other day. I will be calling your office to ask about getting my cat back since I did call your office when he first went missing and gave you all his information and a link to the craigslist post with his picture looking for him... if this is Smokey I will want to get him back immediately as he is a service animal and very much missed.”
GinA called the Humane Society on January 5, 2013 at 9am and spoke at length with the receptionist about their lack of contact with GinA at which time GinA was first told about the missing records and that Smokey was brought to the shelter on November 12, 2012.
GinA immediately engaged in certain legal strategies to gain access to the Humane Society‘s records and the name of the people who currently possess the cat. None of those legal strategies was successful primarily due to the lack of justice in the Maine state court system and the prejudicial rulings made by the judges.
Since GinA realized she could never get justice in the Maine state court system so she worked for 45 days doing legal research and writing a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States asking them to review the final decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court of November 2014 stating the Humane Society Waterville Area is not a public agency and is not subject to public records requests.
The Maine Supreme Court made their decision with prejudice which legally prohibits everyone from filing a lawsuit to gain access to public records of any humane society or animal shelter in the state of Maine.
GinA has successfully filed her Petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States asking the justices to make a national decision that humane societies and animal shelters are a public agency for purposes of public records request, the Americans with Disabilities Act and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
You can read the entire petition here if you enjoy legal work: https://www.scribd.com/doc/254473785/GINA-TURCOTTE-v-HUMANE-SOCIETY-WATERVILLE-AREA-Petition-for-Writ-of-Certiorari-to-the-Supreme-Court-of-the-United-States
The Supreme Court will be having a conference on GinA’s case on March 27, 2015 to decide if they are going to grant the petition and review the case in its entirety. Their decision will be made public on March 30, 2015.
If the Supreme Court decides to hear GinA’s case, GinA will need to travel from Maine to Washington D.C. to appear at the Supreme Court to argue the merits of her case.
Traveling to Washington D.C. will require transportation, hotel and food expenses for 2-3 days as well as money to buy necessary office supplies (paper, ink, etc) to print 10 copies of a brief which very likely could be more than 300 pages.
GinA’s case is a very strong case which the Humane Society never denied. If the Supreme Court of the United States grants GinA’s Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, there is a very high likelihood that the Supreme Court of the United States will reverse the decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and will deem all humane societies and animal shelters to be considered a “public agency” for purposes of public records requests, the Americans with Disabilities Act and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Please donate anything you can to help GinA go to Washington D.C. to argue this historical case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States and to bring Smokey home after almost 3 years.
http://www.gofundme.com/smokeygoestoscotus
Contact
Maine Justice League
