STEPHON DOWNER v. CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-4308-07T14308-07T1

STEPHON DOWNER,

Appellant,

v.

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S

OFFICE,

Respondent.

___________________________________________________

 

Submitted March 18, 2009 - Decided

Before Judges Cuff and Fisher.

On appeal from the Government Records Council, Complaint No. 2008-3.

Stephon Downer, appellant pro se.

Michael G. Brennan, Camden County Counsel, attorney for respondent (Donna M. Whiteside, Assistant County Counsel, on the brief).

Anne Milgram, Attorney General, attorney for Government Records Council (Debra A. Allen, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

PER CURIAM

Stephon Downer appeals a final decision of the Government Records Council (GRC) that rejected his OPRA complaint. We find insufficient merit in the arguments posed by Downer in this appeal to warrant discussion in a written opinion. R. 2:11-3(e)(1)(D). We add only the following brief comments.

Downer was indicted in 2000. The facts and circumstances surrounding that criminal matter are only cursorily revealed by the record. Downer, who is currently an inmate at the New Jersey State Prison, filed his complaint with the GRC, alleging that, on December 7, 2007, he served the prosecutor's office with a request for records concerning a photographic array used at his criminal trial; the prosecutor's office responded that Downer never served a request for documents. Finding the prosecutor's position to be credible, the GRC found Downer's complaint to be "without any reasonable factual basis."

Our standard of review prevents us from upsetting a final agency decision "in the absence of a showing that it was arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable, or that it lacked fair support in the evidence, or that it violated legislative policies expressed or implicit" in the governing statutes. Campbell v. Dep't of Civil Service, 39 N.J. 556, 562 (1963). We conclude that Downer has not presented a basis for our second-guessing the GRC's finding that the request for documents was never served.

Today's judgment does not preclude Downer from serving upon the prosecutor's office, in the future, a request for the records in question.

Affirmed.

Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 to -13.

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A-4308-07T1

March 27, 2009