Custer museum owner sues BLM

The owner of the Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen is suing the federal Bureau of Land Management to force it to give him documents related to investigations and searches of his businesses. Christopher Kortlander, who owns the museum and a business called Historical Rarities Inc., said in a complaint filed Monday that the BLM is wrongfully withholding documents he has requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Greg Albright, BLM spokesman in Billings, said he has not yet seen the lawsuit. In 2009, Kortlander filed more than a dozen FOIA requests seeking information and documents from the BLM and other federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the FBI and the Department of Justice. The requests sought any information held by the agencies about Kortlander or the investigation and searches of his businesses in 2005 and 2008. “They gave him absolutely nothing,” said Kortlander’s attorney, Harold Stanton of Hardin. “We just want them to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and give us the information that was requested.”...more