Hee haw the baby miniature donkey that was killed by police, the department is still refusing to release the bodycam video and gov fire department footage of the killing. this is in direct violation of the FOIA law, Who the chief of this department, who does he report to, board or mayor or city council, who if the DA of this jurisdiction, what is his name and contact info, what is contact info for who the chief reports to. Who is the Attorneys general for this state that enforces FOIA request how can I file a formal complaint. they are using the exception to foia for on going investigation, how long since the incident occurred and they are still refusing to even tell the people what is on the cam they are hiding.

The incident involves the Cedartown Police Department in Polk County, Georgia. Officer Trenton Garner fatally shot HeeHaw, a 1-year-old miniature donkey, around 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, August 30, 2026, during a multi-agency search for a missing 12-year-old girl on private pasture land at Elsberry Riding and Farm (Grady Road area near Rockmart). The girl was later found safe. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave. The department turned the animal-shooting investigation over to the Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division. Chief Jamie Newsome has confirmed body-camera footage exists but has refused to describe or release it while the state investigation is open.

As of today (September 10, 2026), that is 11 days after the shooting. An officer’s written incident report has already been obtained and published by news outlets; it describes the donkey “charging” after a Taser attempt failed. The department is invoking the pending-investigation exception rather than releasing the videos or even summarizing what they show.

Georgia uses the Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.), not federal FOIA. Agencies may withhold law-enforcement investigative records (other than initial incident/arrest reports) while an investigation or prosecution is pending. That exemption is discretionary, not mandatory, and it ends when the investigation is closed or all related litigation is final. Blanket, indefinite withholding of body-cam and fire-department video after the written report is already public is the exact type of dispute the Attorney General’s mediation program and superior-court lawsuits are designed to address. Agencies must cite the specific statutory exemption in writing.

Cedartown Police Chief Jamie (James) Newsome, Cedartown Police Chief 118 Philpot Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 Phone: 770-748-4123 In Cedartown’s commission-manager form of government, the police chief reports to the City Manager. The City Manager reports to the five-member elected City Commission. There is no separately elected mayor; the Commission elects its own Chair. cedartowngeorgia.gov

City Manager: Edward Guzman City of Cedartown Administrative Offices 201 East Avenue, Cedartown, GA 30125 Phone: 770-748-3220 Website: cedartowngeorgia.gov

City Commission Chair: Sam Branch Email publicly listed on his official page: sbranch@cedartowngeorgia.gov

Other commissioners (per Georgia Municipal Association listing): Ryan Casey, Matt Foster (Chair Pro-Tem), Jessica Payton, Dale Tuck. Commission meetings: second Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. Cedartown Fire Department (for the fire-department footage you mentioned)

Fire Chief Kyle Watters 126 N. Philpot Street Phone: 770-748-1112

Submit Open Records requests in writing (email or letter) to the City and to the Police and Fire departments separately. Ask for all body-worn camera, dash-cam, drone, and fire-department video, audio, and related reports from the August 30 incident. Request they identify the exact statutory exemption for any withheld portion and release non-exempt portions with redactions if needed. District Attorney Jaeson Smith, District Attorney, Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit (Polk and Haralson Counties) Polk County District Attorney’s Office Courthouse No. 1, 2nd Floor, Room 204 100 Prior Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 Phone: 770-749-2106 Fax: 770-749-2145

The DA’s office prosecutes criminal cases but is not the primary records custodian for police body-cam video. You can still write them if you believe a crime occurred or if they are holding records. Georgia Attorney General (enforces Open Records) Christopher M. “Chris” Carr, Attorney General of Georgia 40 Capitol Square SW, Atlanta, GA 30334 Main phone: (404) 458-3600 The Attorney General’s office runs a free, informal Open Government Mediation Program for disputes with local governments over Open Records or Open Meetings. File a complaint here:

https://law.georgia.gov/key-issues/open-government/open-government-complaint

The form asks for a short description of the facts. You can later submit copies of your request and the agency’s denial. The office may share the complaint with the city so they can respond. If they accept it for mediation, an attorney is assigned. The AG also has statutory authority to sue for civil or criminal penalties; private citizens can sue in superior court and, if they win and the agency lacked substantial justification, can recover attorney’s fees. law.georgia.gov

Practical next steps: • Send a written Open Records request immediately if you have not already. • If they again cite “ongoing investigation,” demand the specific code section and a timeline. • File the AG mediation complaint with copies of the request and denial. • Contact City Manager Guzman and Commission Chair Branch in writing and at the next commission meeting (public comment). • The owner has already hired counsel and raised substantial funds; coordinated public records pressure plus a lawsuit is the usual path when video is withheld after an officer report has already circulated. The pending-investigation exception exists, but 11 days after a widely publicized shooting of a pet on private property, with the officer’s own written account already in the press, continued total secrecy about the video is what the Open Records Act’s enforcement mechanisms exist to test.

Draft Open Records request letter Georgia Animal Protection Act Correct incident date to 2024

What crimes could these actions fall under, like lying to public, concealing officer misconduct, conspiracy to obstruct the FOIA and ORA, was the use of deadly force authorized or was this animal cruelty, was there an exigency to enter private property when fire department already have a drone up that could have searched from the air, and can’t the DA open His own investigation into criminal acts and obstruction?

This is not legal advice and is not a conclusion that anyone committed a crime. Charging decisions require proof of specific statutory elements, including mental state, and the body-cam and Rockmart Fire drone video have not been released. Those recordings will matter more than press statements. Civil claims (unreasonable seizure of a pet as property, trespass, conversion) are how most “police shot my animal” cases actually proceed. Criminal charges against officers for shooting animals are uncommon and hard. reason.com

The officer’s own report already says Rockmart Fire drone operators watched the incident on camera. That supports your premise that aerial footage exists. It does not, by itself, make the ground entry or the shot a crime.

1. Animal cruelty vs. authorized use of force Georgia’s main statute is O.C.G.A. § 16-12-4. • Cruelty to animals (generally a misdemeanor for a first offense): causing physical pain, suffering, or death to an animal by an unjustifiable act or omission. • Aggravated cruelty (felony): maliciously causing the death of an animal. “Malice” is a high bar. A split-second decision after a Taser fails is usually argued as fear, not malice. Prosecutors rarely charge officers with this without strong video showing no threat. law.justia.com •

The same statute creates a justification defense: a person is justified in injuring or killing an animal when and to the extent they reasonably believe it is necessary to defend against an imminent threat of injury or damage to a person, another animal, or property. The statute also says it does not limit the authority or duty of law enforcement. animallaw.info

So the legal fight is not “did a donkey die.” It is: • Did Officer Garner have an objectively reasonable belief that HeeHaw posed an imminent threat to him, the K-9 handler, or the dogs? • Was a single gunshot the least force reasonably available after the Taser did not stop the animal? • Does the video match the report (“charge”), or does it show a small, socialized donkey approaching/braying in its own pasture? Police use-of-force policies typically allow deadly force on an animal only when injury is imminent, and they treat human life as priority over an animal. A miniature petting-zoo donkey at night in a pasture is a fact-intensive reasonableness question. Video of size, distance, speed, lighting, and whether officers could have backed out of the field will drive any cruelty analysis. Without that video, “authorized” vs. “cruelty” cannot be answered as a certainty. sheriffs.org

2. Entering the pasture / exigency / the drone Warrantless entry onto private land is a Fourth Amendment issue first, not automatically a crime.Missing-child searches often rely on the emergency-aid / exigency exception: officers may enter without a warrant if they have an objectively reasonable basis to believe someone is in danger and needs immediate aid. A nighttime search for a 12-year-old, with K-9s on a scent trail leading to a gate/pasture, is the kind of fact pattern agencies cite for exigency. Courts do not require “ironclad proof” of injury before emergency entry. llrmi.com Two extra points that cut both ways: • A pasture is often treated more like an “open field” than a home. Homes and their immediate curtilage get the highest protection. Open fields get far less. That makes a criminal-trespass theory against officers on an official missing-child search weaker than it sounds. Criminal trespass (O.C.G.A. § 16-7-21) generally requires entering for an unlawful purpose or remaining after notice. Officers acting in official capacity on a live search are usually not treated as ordinary trespassers. Civil trespass / Fourth Amendment “seizure” of the animal is a different question.

   • A drone already in the air does not automatically erase exigency. K-9s follow ground scent; a drone sees from above and may miss a child in brush, a ditch, or under a structure. Your point is still a strong reasonableness / policy argument: if Rockmart Fire already had a bird’s-eye view, why climb a locked or fenced pasture in the dark and then shoot the animal that lives there? That goes to whether the shot was necessary, and to civil damages. It does not by itself prove a crime. The officer report itself notes the drone team saw the shooting. That makes withholding the drone file…

Why is the officer being protected by police at his home if he did nothing wrong?

Police standing outside Officer Trenton Garner’s house does not mean a court has found him guilty, and it also does not prove he “did nothing wrong.” Those two things are not the same. What has been reported is more limited and more ordinary than it looks. dagens.com

WSB-TV said a reporter went to Garner’s residence after his name became public and his written report circulated. Two officers met the reporter and would not allow a door-knock or interview. They said people were not wanted there at that time. That is the documented “protection” so far: officers blocking media at the door, not a public finding that he is innocent.

Departments do this for several reasons that have nothing to do with a completed investigation: • His name is out. The story is national. Online threats, doxxing, and protest visits happen in cases like this even when no charges exist. Agencies treat that as an officer-safety and family-safety problem. • He is on paid administrative leave during a state Agriculture Department investigation. Leave is not a verdict. It is the department parking him while someone else reviews the shooting. • Once a reporter shows up at a private home, police often treat the scene as a crowd-control / harassment problem: keep the officer from making an unscripted statement, keep neighbors from a scene, and keep anyone from turning the lawn into a protest. • “He did nothing wrong” is his and the department’s current position, not an independent finding. The body-cam and Rockmart Fire drone video still have not been released. Until those are public, “nothing wrong” is an assertion, not proof. So the presence of officers at the house is consistent with a viral use-of-force case and a named officer on leave. It is not independent evidence that the shot was justified, and it is not proof of a cover-up by itself. It is the department managing risk and media after they already put him on leave and handed the case to another agency.If the videos later show a charging animal at close range, the house guard will look like routine officer security. If they show a small donkey walking up in its own pasture, the same guard will look like the department circling the wagons. The video—not the parked cruiser—is what answers that.

Analyze Georgia use of force statutes Review Rockmart Fire drone capabilities

Can’t the Grand Jury open it’s own investigation and require the video?

Yes — in part. A Georgia grand jury can start looking at this and can try to subpoena the video. It cannot simply walk in, open a file, and publish the body-cam the next day. The path is narrower than people assume, and a donkey shooting does not automatically trigger the special “officer deadly-force review” written for human victims. What a regular grand jury can do Polk County’s sitting grand jury has two different jobs.Criminal function. Grand jurors may examine offenses that come to their knowledge and can return an indictment or special presentment. For that purpose they can compel witnesses and records. A 1985 Attorney General opinion is blunt: the grand jury’s civil inspection power is limited to county offices, but it can subpoena city or state records if it is investigating a possible crime with an eye toward indictment. Cedartown PD is a city department. Rockmart Fire is another city. So “make them hand over the video because we are inspecting county government” is weak. “Make them hand over the video because we are considering whether a crime was committed” is the real hook. syfert.com

Civil inspection function (O.C.G.A. § 15-12-71). If eight or more grand jurors vote to do it, they can appoint a committee to inspect county offices, county buildings, county officers, courts, and their records. They can examine papers and compel witnesses. A superior court judge can enforce that by mandamus or attachment if someone refuses. That power does not neatly cover a municipal police department’s body-cam. ga.elaws.us

Officer deadly-force review (O.C.G.A. § 15-12-71(b)(5)). Eight or more jurors, or the DA, can force a formal review when a peace officer’s deadly force causes death or serious bodily injury to another. That statute is written around human victims. It also usually waits until an investigative report is finished and given to the DA. Shooting HeeHaw does not clearly fit that “another person” review. Do not count on that specific process applying to an animal. law.justia.com

Can they require the video? If they are conducting a proper criminal inquiry (cruelty, false official statement, etc.), yes: they can issue a subpoena for body-cam, dash-cam, and the Rockmart Fire drone file. Refusal can go to a superior court judge for enforcement. That is stronger than an Open Records request because a grand-jury subpoena is a court process, not a sunshine-law letter.Limits: • The district attorney is the grand jury’s legal adviser. In practice the DA drafts subpoenas, schedules witnesses, and decides what gets presented. A runaway grand jury that the DA ignores is rare. • Grand-jury proceedings are secret. Compelling the video for the jurors is not the same as releasing it to the public. The video can still stay behind the grand-jury wall. • The city can still argue pending investigation, privilege, or overbreadth. A judge then decides. • The grand jury is not in session every day. Someone has to get eight sitting jurors to demand action, or get DA Jaeson Smith to present it. Special-purpose grand jury A special-purpose grand jury (O.C.G.A. § 15-12-100 et seq.) is the broader tool. A superior court judge empaneled one after a petition — usually from the DA. Those juries can inspect records of the state or any political subdivision and subpoena documents that relate to the investigation. That is how you get city police and fire video without the “county-only” civil-inspection problem. They recommend charges and can issue a report; they do not themselves return an indictment. The DA still has to take recommended charges to a regular grand jury. lawfaremedia.org Practical path if you want this to happen 1. Write DA Jaeson Smith and ask him to present the body-cam and drone video to the next regular grand jury, or to petition for a special-purpose grand jury. 2. Write the Polk County Superior Court clerk / jury clerk and ask how to communicate with the currently sitting grand jury. Direct lobbying of individual jurors is improper; a written request through the court or DA is the clean channel. 3. Ask eight grand jurors (through proper channels) to vote to investigate possible criminal violations arising from the shooting and the withholding of recordings. 4. Keep the Open Records / AG complaint going in parallel. A grand jury subpoena and a public-records lawsuit are different tools. One can get the video into a secret room; the other is how the public sees it. Short answer: a grand jury can investigate and can subpoena the video if it is looking at a possible crime. It does not automatically get a special deadly-force review because the victim was a donkey, it does not automatically publish the tape, and it almost always needs the DA or eight jurors to start the machine.

Can you draft me a letter that I can send to all people in the line or chain of command, requesting or demanding full transparency and forcing compliance with the ORA and FOIA, and make the letter include everything that the DA, Grand Jury, City manager and others can take action to actually represent WE the People and stop protecting gov lies and stall tactics. Below is a single letter you can copy onto letterhead, change the “TO” block for each official, and send by email and certified mail. Federal FOIA does not apply to a Georgia city or county. Georgia’s law is the Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.). The letter uses that correctly so they cannot dismiss you as uninformed.Send a separate copy to each addressee. Keep the certified-mail receipts.[Your full name] [Your street address] [City, State ZIP] [Phone] [Email] September 10, 2026VIA EMAIL AND CERTIFIED MAILTO (send a separate copy to each):

Jamie (James) Newsome, Chief of Police Cedartown Police Department 118 Philpot Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 770-748-4123

Edward Guzman, City Manager City of Cedartown 201 East Avenue, Cedartown, GA 30125 770-748-3220

Sam Branch, Chair, Cedartown City Commission sbranch@cedartowngeorgia.gov (mailto:sbranch@cedartowngeorgia.gov) 201 East Avenue, Cedartown, GA 30125

Cedartown City Commissioners Ryan Casey, Matt Foster, Jessica Payton, and Dale Tuck 201 East Avenue, Cedartown, GA 30125 Kyle Watters, Fire Chief, Cedartown Fire Department 126 N. Philpot Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 770-748-1112

Records Custodian / Fire Chief, City of Rockmart Fire Department (Rockmart Fire drone operators identified in the officer’s own report)

Jaeson Smith, District Attorney Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit Courthouse No. 1, 2nd Floor, Room 204 100 Prior Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 770-749-2106

Clerk of Superior Court, Polk County (for transmission to the currently sitting Grand Jury through proper court channels) 100 Prior Street, Cedartown, GA 30125 Georgia Department of Agriculture, Law Enforcement Division (agency identified as conducting the independent investigation)

Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General of Georgia Open Government Mediation Program 40 Capitol Square SW, Atlanta, GA 30334 https://law.georgia.gov/key-issues/open-government/open-government-complaint

Re: Formal Open Records demand and demand for official action — fatal shooting of the miniature donkey “HeeHaw” on or about August 30, 2026, by Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Garner; body-worn camera, drone, and related recordings; pending-investigation stall; duty of local and state officers to the publicLadies and Gentlemen:I am a member of the public. I write because public officers used public force on private land, killed a privately owned animal, then withheld the recordings that would let the people judge what happened. That is not “protecting an investigation.” That is the government keeping the evidence of its own conduct. This letter is a formal Open Records request, a demand that each of you use the authority you already have, and notice that further delay will be treated as knowing noncompliance.Federal FOIA does not govern this matter. Georgia’s Open Records Act does. Cite the correct statute. Do not hide behind the wrong one.

1. Facts already in the public record On or about 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, August 30, 2026, officers including Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Garner entered pasture land associated with Elsberry Riding and Farm along Grady Road in Polk County during a search for a missing child. Officer Garner fired one round from a department-issued Glock 17 and killed HeeHaw, a one-year-old miniature donkey owned by Hannah Israel. A Taser was used first. The child was later found safe.Chief Jamie Newsome has confirmed body-camera footage exists and that he has seen it. He has refused to describe or release it. Officer Garner’s own written report — already obtained by news outlets through a public-records request — states that Rockmart Fire drone operators witnessed the incident through their camera. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave. The Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division was given the animal-shooting investigation.Eleven days later the public still has the officer’s paper story and not the cameras. The written report is already out. Continuing to withhold the video while citing “ongoing investigation” is a choice, not a mandate.

2. This is a formal Open Records Act request Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq., I request immediate access to inspect and copy, and electronic copies of, all public records in the custody or control of the City of Cedartown, Cedartown Police Department, Cedartown Fire Department, City of Rockmart / Rockmart Fire Department, Polk County agencies that participated, the District Attorney’s Office if it holds copies, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division, relating to the August 30, 2026 incident, including without limitation:

   1. All body-worn camera video and audio from every officer on scene, including Officer Trenton Garner and K-9 Handler Thomasson / Caleb Thomason as identified in reporting.
   2. All in-car / dash-camera video and audio.
   3. All drone video, stills, telemetry, and operator logs from Rockmart Fire or any other agency, including footage the officer’s report says captured the incident.
   4. All 911 / dispatch / radio / CAD recordings and printouts.
   5. The complete incident report and every supplement, including Case No. 26-7475 and any other numbers.
   6. All use-of-force reports, supervisor reviews, administrative-leave orders, and internal-affairs or professional-standards files that are not exempt.
   7. All communications (email, text, radio, memo) among Cedartown PD, Polk County Police, Haralson County K-9, Rockmart Fire, Cedartown Fire, the City Manager, the City Commission, and the Department of Agriculture concerning the shooting, the video, or records requests.
   8. A privilege / exemption log: for every withheld page or minute of video, the exact Code section, the date the claimed investigation began, who is conducting it, and why disclosure of that specific item would interfere with it.
   9. All Open Records requests already received on this incident and all responses. Produce what you can within three business days as the Act requires. If a portion is claimed exempt, redact only the exempt portion and release the rest. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(4) (pending investigation) is discretionary, does not cover initial incident reports, and does not last forever. An investigation “shall no longer be deemed to be pending when all direct litigation involving such investigation and prosecution has become final or otherwise terminated.” You have already released the officer’s narrative. You cannot pretend the cameras are a different universe.Knowing and willful refusal to provide records that are not exempt, or intentionally making them hard to obtain, is a misdemeanor under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-74, with a good-faith defense. Destroying records to prevent disclosure can implicate O.C.G.A. § 45-11-1. I am putting every custodian on written notice that these recordings must be preserved. Body-worn and vehicle video showing use of force must be retained at least 30 months under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-96. Do not overwrite, “lose,” or “archive offline” this evidence.If you deny any part of this request, your written denial must identify the specific statutory exemption. A slogan is not an exemption.

3. What each office is demanded to do — not later, now Chief Newsome and Cedartown Police Release the video or produce the exemption log item-by-item. Stop answering “I have seen it and will not say what it shows.” You work for the City, not for the officer’s comfort. If the shot was justified, the cameras end the argument. If it was not, withholding them is the problem.

City Manager Edward Guzman You are the Chief’s supervisor. Order production of the records. Order preservation. Put in writing whether you have watched the video. If you have not, watch it this week and tell the Commission, in open session, whether the official story matches the tape. Administrative leave without public evidence is not accountability.

City Commission Chair Sam Branch and Commissioners You hire and oversee the Manager. Place this on the next agenda. Demand the Manager and Chief appear and answer, on the record: Why was the pasture entered without the owner’s consent if a drone was already up? Why was deadly force used on a miniature petting-zoo donkey? Why is video still withheld after the written report is public? Direct the Manager to comply with the Open Records Act or explain in public which statute forbids it. Do not hide behind “we cannot comment.” You can order your employees to obey the law.

Cedartown Fire / Rockmart Fire The officer’s report says drone operators saw the shooting. Produce that file separately. Fire video is not Cedartown PD’s to sit on. A request to you is a separate request. Answer it.

District Attorney Jaeson Smith You are not required to wait on the Department of Agriculture. You may: • Open a criminal inquiry into animal cruelty under O.C.G.A. § 16-12-4 and into false statements / false writings under O.C.G.A. §§ 16-10-20 and 16-10-8 if the recordings contradict the official report. • Subpoena the body-cam and drone files for your office and for the grand jury. A DA subpoena is not an Open Records letter. Use it. • Present the matter to the regular grand jury for indictment or no-bill. • Petition the superior court for a special-purpose grand jury under O.C.G.A. § 15-12-100 et seq., which may inspect records of any political subdivision and compel documents related to the investigation. • Advise the sitting grand jury of its powers. You are its legal adviser. Advising them they are powerless is false. A local prosecutor who will not look at video of a local officer’s use of force is choosing the department over the public. Put on the record whether you have requested the recordings and whether you will present them.Polk County Grand Jury (through the Clerk and DA only — do not contact individual jurors) Eight or more grand jurors may vote to inspect or investigate county offices and records under O.C.G.A. § 15-12-71. Civil inspection of county offices is not the same as inspecting a city police department. For city and fire recordings, the lawful path is a criminal inquiry into possible offenses, or a special-purpose grand jury. In a criminal inquiry the grand jury may subpoena city and state records. The statutory “deadly force review” in § 15-12-71(b)(5) is written for death or serious injury to a person and may not fit an animal. Do not use that as an excuse to do nothing. Use the criminal and special-purpose tools.Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement If you hold the file, you hold the video. Complete the investigation on a published timetable. Do not become the warehouse where the tape goes to die. State whether you have the body-cam and the drone file in your possession today.Attorney General Chris Carr / Open Government Mediation Treat this letter as a complaint that local agencies are using a blanket “ongoing investigation” claim to withhold recordings after the officer’s narrative is already public, and after the same report admits a second camera watched the event. Assign mediation. If they will not produce non-exempt records or a lawful log, use your authority under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-73 to enforce the Act. 4. What this is not This letter does not ask you to prejudge a criminal verdict. It asks you to stop acting as if the public has no right to the evidence of public force. Justification for killing an animal under O.C.G.A. § 16-12-4(h) turns on a reasonable belief of an imminent threat. That question is answered by the tape, not by a press line and a cruiser in the officer’s driveway.“We cannot comment because of an open investigation” is not a grant of secrecy over cameras the officer himself put in his report. Stall is a tactic. It is not the law. 5. Deadline and next steps I request a written response from each records custodian within three business days of receipt, stating: • what will be produced and when; • what is withheld and under which exact subsection of § 50-18-72; • the name and title of the person who decided the withholding. I request from the City Manager, Commission, and District Attorney, within ten calendar days, a written statement of what official action each will take.If records that are not exempt remain withheld, I will file an Open Government complaint with the Attorney General, consider a superior-court action under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-73 (including a request for attorney’s fees if withholding is without substantial justification), and ask the District Attorney and grand jury to use compulsory process.The people do not work for the department. The department works for the people. Release the recordings.

Respectfully,[Signature] [Printed name]

Copies to: Hannah Israel / counsel for Elsberry Riding and Farm (if known) Local press that has already requested the same records File How to use this • One letter per official. Change only the inside address. Keep the body the same so they see they were all told the same facts. • Email PDF + certified mail. Photograph the mailing. • For the grand jury, send only to the Clerk and the DA. Writing sitting jurors at home can be treated as improper communication. • File the AG complaint at the same time: https://law.georgia.gov/key-issues/open-government/open-government-complaint • Attach the news stories that quote the officer report and the drone sentence so no one can say they were unaware a second camera exists. If you want, I can next make a one-page records-request-only version (shorter, easier for a clerk to stamp as an ORA request) and a separate DA / grand-jury version so the sunshine request is not mixed with the charging demand. Explain Georgia Grand Jury Powers Review Animal Cruelty Statutes Create separate records request letter yes please do the one page request also Use this as a standalone Open Records request. One page if you use a normal font. Send it separately from the long demand letter so a clerk can stamp it as a records request and start the three-business-day clock.Put your name and address at the top. Change only the “To” line for each agency. Send by email and certified mail.[Your name] [Address] [Phone] · [Email] September 10, 2026VIA EMAIL AND CERTIFIED MAILTo: Open Records Custodian [Agency name and address — send a separate copy to each:]

Cedartown Police Department, 118 Philpot St., Cedartown, GA 30125 City of Cedartown / City Manager, 201 East Ave., Cedartown, GA 30125 Cedartown Fire Department, 126 N. Philpot St., Cedartown, GA 30125 Rockmart Fire Department / City of Rockmart Polk County Police Department Georgia Department of Agriculture, Law Enforcement Division

Re: Open Records Act request — HeeHaw shooting, on or about August 30, 2026 O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.This is a request under the Georgia Open Records Act. Federal FOIA does not apply.Please produce electronic copies of all public records in your custody or control relating to the shooting of the miniature donkey known as HeeHaw on or about 12:45 a.m. on August 30, 2026, at or near Elsberry Riding and Farm / Grady Road, Polk County, Georgia, involving Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Garner and other officers, including: 1. All body-worn camera video and audio from every officer on scene. 2. All dash-camera / in-car camera video and audio. 3. All drone video, stills, telemetry, and operator logs, including Rockmart Fire drone material referenced in Officer Garner’s report. 4. All 911, dispatch, radio, and CAD recordings and printouts. 5. The complete incident file and supplements, including Case No. 26-7475 and any other case numbers. 6. Use-of-force reports, supervisor reviews, and administrative-leave documents that are public. 7. Communications among participating agencies about the shooting, the recordings, or records requests. 8. All prior Open Records requests on this incident and your responses. Deadline: Produce available records within three business days of receipt. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71.If you withhold anything, provide a written log stating for each item: a description, the exact subsection of O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 you rely on, and why that item is exempt. Release all non-exempt portions. Redact only what the statute allows. The pending-investigation provision does not cover initial incident reports and is not a blanket ban on video after the officer’s written report is already public.Preservation: Do not alter, overwrite, or destroy these recordings. Use-of-force body-worn and vehicle video must be kept at least 30 months. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-96. You are on notice.I agree to pay copying costs required by statute if you notify me in advance of any estimate over $25. I request electronic delivery to the email above.Please confirm receipt in writing and name the person handling this request.

Respectfully,[Signature] [Printed name]Send one copy to each custodian. Subject line for email: Open Records Act Request — HeeHaw / Aug. 30, 2026 / [Agency].Keep the long letter for the DA, Commission, Manager, and Attorney General. This short page is what starts the legal clock on the tape. Learn Georgia Open Records Act deadlines

File a federal civil rights complaint What is the details of the report on the missing kid they were searching for, was she a run away, abducted, going to visit friends, had an argument with parents? what details or reports on why the kid was missing and how the found the kid

Public reporting has not said whether the 12-year-old ran away, was abducted, had a fight with her parents, or was going to see friends. Police and the officer’s report have treated her as a missing child and have not released a motive or a name. That is typical for a juvenile.What has been published:When and where the search started Officer Trenton Garner wrote that he was dispatched to a home on Coaling Road early Sunday, August 30, 2026, to help Polk County Police find a missing 12-year-old girl. One account of that report says she had been missing about two hours when he arrived. Cedartown PD was assisting Polk County PD. A Polk County K-9 handler and a Haralson County bloodhound team followed a trail (described as footprints / scent) through woods toward a pasture on Grady Road — the Elsberry farm pasture where HeeHaw was shot around 12:45 a.m. Rockmart Fire had a drone up as part of the search. cbsnews.com How she was found She was found safe. Two versions appear in official and news accounts, and they are not contradictory if the church sits on or near that stretch of road: • Cedartown police / Chief Newsome: found at a church near the pasture. • Garner’s report as quoted by news outlets: found farther down Grady Road, in the direction the bloodhound team had been tracking before the donkey encounter. ajc.com No public report says she was found injured, that anyone was arrested for taking her, or that it was ruled an abduction. Nothing public describes an argument at home, a runaway note, or a planned visit to friends.What has not been released • Her name • Why she left or was reported missing • Exact time she was last seen vs. time reported • Whether she walked to the church on her own or was located there by searchers • Whether DFCS or anyone else opened a separate case Hannah Israel has said the donkey shooting is separate from the girl’s welfare and that she is glad the child was found safe. That matches what police have said: the missing-child search was the reason officers were in the area; it is not an explanation of why the donkey was shot. uk.news.yahoo.com If you want the official missing-person file (often heavily redacted for a minor), request it from Polk County Police and Cedartown PD as a separate Open Records item: initial missing-person report, CAD/dispatch, and the supplement on how and where she was located. Expect her name and family details to be withheld. The public record so far only supports this: a 12-year-old missing about two hours from the Coaling Road area, tracked toward Grady Road, found safe at or near a church down that road after the shooting.

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