OFFICIALS TAKEN TO TASK FOR NOT RELEASING DOCUMENTS

CASSOPOLIS -- Cass County authorities are taking some heat for not
releasing public documents.

William McMaster, president of the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based
Taxpayers United, took advantage of the Cass County Board of
Commissioners' public comments period to ask why efforts to obtain
autopsy reports for late Rainbow Farm Campground principals Grover
"Tom" Crosslin, 46, and Rolland "Rollie" Rohm, 28, have been
unsuccessful.

The group, a statewide advocacy group for voters, has been acting on
behalf of the families of the men, who were killed by police during a
Labor Day weekend standoff at the Rainbow Farm Campground in Vandalia.

McMaster said the families want the reports to answer questions they
have about the circumstances of the men's deaths, and that efforts to
use the state Freedom of Information Act to get the reports have been
unsuccessful.

"There is no reason we know of why (the reports) have not been
released," he said. "Why are we having such a difficult time?"

Commission Chairman James Guse, R-Dowagiac, said commissioners were
doing their best to resolve the issue, but were uncertain of the
legalities involved in the release of the reports

"Each of us here has taken an oath to represent the people to the best
of our abilities," he said. "We are going to do the best we can."

Commissioners voted unanimously to present the matter to county
attorneys to review. When friends and family of the slain men began to
protest the commissioners' actions, they were escorted out of the
meeting at the Cass County Courthouse, where some of them had
protested earlier in the day.