Peeler v. FBI, No. 15-169, 2016 WL 730697 (D. Conn. Feb. 23, 2016) (Squatrito, J.)

Peeler v. FBI, No. 15-169, 2016 WL 730697 (D. Conn. Feb. 23, 2016) (Squatrito, J.)

Re: Request for records concerning plaintiff's pager

Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records:  "The Court concludes that the FBI conducted an adequate search in response to the plaintiff's FOIA request."  The court finds that "[t]he FBI searched the plaintiff's file, including all other related subfiles, by hand but could not locate any records relating to his pager number from January 1999."  The court notes that "in response to the plaintiff's previous FOIA request and associated lawsuit, the FBI had conducted a search of the general indices to the FBI's Central Records System . . . to identify all potentially responsive investigative files relating to [plaintiff] during the time period of January 1999."  "Having already conducted an exhaustive search in connection with the plaintiff's previous FOIA request, the FBI reasonably concluded that, with regard to the plaintiff's [new] request, any potentially responsive material would be located within [that] investigative file."  The court finds that "[t]he FBI was not required to repeat the initial search of the general indices to the CRS."  Additionally, the court finds that "plaintiff’s unsupported belief that records must have been received in response to . . . [a] subpoena is insufficient to render the search inadequate."