fopen/fpassthru most files won't open except pdf & txt do!

[m300zx]

hi there, can someone please tell me what is the problem here: http://www.dharmonynow.com/filez/index.php

when a link to file is clicked by user, .htaccess shots control over to authorize.php:
want to prevent other users from snooping in private folders.
before I added the pass through authorize.php everything was working great.
session stuff was removed for troubleshooting .

############### # AUTHORIZE.PHP

<?php
// session_start();
require_once $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/require/connection.php';
// require_once $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/require/auth-session.php';

//assign current member from session
$current_couple = 377;

// pull folder from url 
$mystring = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; 
$findme = '/';
$pos = strrpos($mystring, $findme);
$path = substr("$mystring", 0, $pos); 
$folder = substr("$path", 16); 

// dissect path and file name just to troubleshoot
$pathtofile = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

$path_details=pathinfo($pathtofile);
$nameandext = $path_details['basename'];
$justext = $path_details['extension'];
$justname = $path_details['filename'];
$mtype = mime_content_type($pathtofile); // correct results except for .doc and .xls
/*	echo "<p />";
echo "folder in path matches current couple";
echo "<br>";
echo $pathtofile; // complete path with file and extention
echo "<br>";
echo $path_details['dirname']; // complete path to dir
echo "<br>";
echo $path_details['basename']; // file name & extention
echo "<br>";
echo $path_details['extension']; // file extention	
echo "<br>";
echo $path_details['filename']; // file name
echo "<br>";
echo "mime type is: " . $mtype;	
echo "<br>"; 
*/	

if($current_couple == $folder){

if(file_exists($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])){

// Open the file for reading
$fp = fopen($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'r');

// Set mime type to header
header('Content-type: '.mime_content_type($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']));

// Send the contents of the file the browser
fpassthru($fp);
fclose($fp);

} 

else {
// File not found
die('File not found'); }
} // end of IF AUTHORIZED
else {
die('Access denied');} 
?>

############### ############### ########## END

mime content type results are more or less correct (doc and xls files id'ed as txt). but does spot jpg and gif correctly.
no whitespace in code.
files are not corrupt, they download just fine.
pdf and txt files display fine.
IS THIS A PROBLEM WITH HEADERS, OR CACHE STUFF, OR WHAT?

I'm really lost here and in dire need of a point in the right direction PLEASE.

with much thanks,

mdh

[Luuk]

this request:

http://www.dharmonynow.com/filez/box/data/377/DrStrangelove12.jpg

returns:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:51:25 GMT
Server: Apache
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=75
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: image/jpeg
Content-Length: 169179

 <== there's a SPACE there....
	
�����JFIF�


�H�H�����Exif��II........

Below the headers only 1 EMPTY line is expexted!
Currenlty there are 3 lines, and one of them contains a SPACE......