Richard Shoch, David Fisher, Northumberland County PA

[dlfi...@ptd.net]

From: Richard Shoch [<mailto:rsh...@live.com>]
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 12:37 PM
To: David Fisher; dlfi...@ptd.net
Cc: 'Richard Shoch'
Subject: FW: Letter to the Editor/My Turn

Perhaps some of you saw my editorial piece in the Daily Item yesterday. If
not, it is attached for your reference. The piece was sent also sent to the
Shamokin News-Item on Friday morning. Please see the below email that I
received from their Publisher this morning and my response. As you will
undoubtedly pick up from the tone of my response, I�ve pretty much lost my
patience with the way the press protects Mr. Clausi. Mind you, this was
submitted as an opinion piece. How many times has this newspaper printed
statements the Mr. Clausi makes about myself and others that are incapable
of verification, and yet they are printed in actual articles in their
publication. Ironically, my Letter to the Editor that they are stalling the
publishing of is calling Mr. Clausi out on just that practice!

Please forward this to as many emails as you can and feel free to post both
the Letter to the Editor and this email string on your blogs or facebook
pages. Our local newspapers need to know that there is also a price to be
paid, in terms of their credibility, when they pick and choose who they will
hold accountable in the pages of their publications.

Thanks,

Rick Shoch

From: Richard Shoch [<mailto:rsh...@live.com>]
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 12:01 PM
To: 'Andy Heintzelman'
Cc: 'Richard Shoch'
Subject: RE: Letter to the Editor/My Turn

Andy: I�m not sure which information you are referring to, so I�ll
summarize each paragraph and where the information came from:

Paragraph 1: This paragraph references statements made at the April 10,
2013 Public Meeting. All quoted statements were taken from the County�s
digital audio recording of the meeting.

Paragraph 2: This paragraph consists of my statement regarding the
circumstances surrounding Mr. Fisher�s provision of deposition testimony
(these circumstances were also described by Mr. Clausi during the 4/10
public meeting, albeit in barely intelligible broken English, and with
significant prompting and coaching from the Chief Clerk, as is evident on
the recording). It also includes my assertion that Mr. Clausi�s
characterization of the deposition testimony is false and mine is true (This
is my opinion, which I thought was entirely appropriate to give in a Letter
to The Editor that was being submitted for publication in a newspaper�s
Opinion Page. It is also one that I invite your readership to verify on
their own in the event my colleagues can summon the courage to release the
transcript).

Paragraph 3. - This paragraph contains a statement by me (see ref. to
Opinion Page, above) that Mr. Clausi creates liabilities for our County when
he opens his mouth. I believe this statement would also fall under the
category of �those truths we hold as self-evident� that our founding fathers
recognized. The rest of the paragraph consists of a statement that if Mr.
Clausi is claiming something to be true , and I am claiming that his claim
is false, one of us has to be lying. This seems to me to be fairly
straight-forward application of a law of logical reasoning that is also self
evident. ( It�s kind of like the law of gravity, or the proposition that two
things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.) The only
way this could not be the case is if Mr. Clausi was mistaken in his
characterization of the deposition, as opposed to setting out to
deliberately lie about it. Again, I think people should see the deposition
transcript to determine if it is humanly possible for Mr. Clausi to have
misinterpreted it to represent the exact opposite of what I say it
represents).

Paragraph 4. - This consists of a public challenge by me to the other two
Commissioners, and a prediction as to whether they will rise to the
challenge of providing transparency to the public in this matter. It also
consists of a statement that the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the
litigation already have the information contained in the deposition
transcript (also self-evident since they are the ones who subpoenaed Mr.
Fisher and deposed him), and a statement of logical reasoning that concludes
that, therefore, the County�s agreeing to release the transcript would not
jeopardize our legal position vis-a-vis the Plaintiffs, since they already
have the information that would be released.

Paragraph 5. - This paragraph begins with a sentence consisting of my
opinion (see Opinion Page, above) that there is an important reason for the
public to view the transcript. Sentence No. 2 is a statement of what I say
the deposition transcript is �depicting�. I guess you could say this is my
opinion (see Opinion Page, above) of what the testimony depicts. Sentence 3
is, again, my opinion and characterization (see Opinion Page, above) of the
types of actions the testimony �describes�, and my opinion as to whether the
�described� actions are what people should expect from their County
Officials.

The remaining paragraphs do not really deal with the transcript, but consist
of my opinions and commentary (see Letter to the Editor and Opinion Page,
above). If there is something I�ve missed please let me know.

I have to admit, I thought it a bit odd that you were requesting such
clarification of my statements before publishing an opinion piece, as
opposed to an article being reported by your staff. This is particularly so
in light of your recent publication of a Letter from one Mark Heintzelman
last week that referenced myself and Point Township officials. It contained
several statements of alleged fact and alleged public statements by us that
would not have been capable of verification by Mr. Heintzelman. If I were
a more jaded person, I might suspect this sort of verification and
clarification was only required when you were concerned about incurring the
wrath of the Great and Powerful Oz. Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain!

Rick Shoch

From: Andy Heintzelman
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 7:52 AM
To: Richard Shoch
Subject: Re: Letter to the Editor/My Turn

Rick - I noticed that you didn't reference the deposition as the source of
some of this info, or is it all from conversation with Mr. Fisher?
Thanks
Andy

On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 9:43 AM, Richard Shoch <rsh...@live.com
<mailto:rsh...@live.com>> wrote:
To All:

I ask that you please publish the attached Letter to the Editor in your news
publication and on your web sites. It exceeds the normal word limit for a
typical letter to the editor, so perhaps it is more appropriately a �My
Turn�- type submission.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at (570)492-7133
<tel:%28570%29492-7133> if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Richard J. Shoch
Northumberland County Commissioner



--
Andy Heintzelman
Editor
The News-Item
570-644-5741