The mysterious K2K dossier
by David Madison
At the County Commission meeting on Jan. 24, commissioners received a hefty three-ring binder filled with printed copies of emails about the justice center project. The correspondence was downloaded from a public Internet discussion group called Knoxville 2000, or K2K. In the top right hand corner of each copied email, the email address of the person who downloaded the files is blacked out.
But on one page in the 19 binders provided to commissioners, the email address was not blacked out. It reads: [email protected]. According to K2K's online registry, this address belongs to someone named Sean Pitts. K2K acknowledges that it's possible for people to join the forum using a false name.
At presstime, emails to [email protected] went unreturned. County Commissioners, the Sheriff's Department, and members of the K2K discussion group all claim to know nothing about Pitts. Commissioners and the Sheriff's Department also say they know nothing about who compiled the three-inch thick binders.
Dwight Van de Vate, chief deputy at the Sheriff's Department, says the notebook is not an official document produced by the Sheriff's Department, but adds that he can neither "confirm nor deny" whether the department had prior knowledge of the binders' production. He says the department did put out a small brochure titled "Knox County Justice Center: Fiction and Fact." Like the binders, the sheriff's brochure attempts to discredit those who share ideas via email on K2K.
The brochure also happens to look a lot like the binders. Each shows what the new $90 million jail and sheriff's office should look like once completed. When asked if she helped compile the binders, Martha Dooley, the Sheriff's Department director of planning and development, said, "I can't answer that question at this time. Can I call you back?" As Metro Pulse went to press, Dooley and Pitts remained no shows.
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