This open government case from Grant County, involving access to sealed divorce records of an elected official, tracts an older case from Bourbon County.
The first, reported in today's Cincinnati Enquirer, involves Kenton County Family Court Judge Dawn Gentry. The second, reported by the Courier Journal in 2016, involved Senator Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown).
In February 2016, the Courier petitioned the Bourbon Circuit Court to unseal records from Thayer's 2011 divorce, which was finalized in 2012.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-legislature/2016…
The Courier maintained that Thayer "brought scrutiny to his private life" when he filed a February 10, 2016, lawsuit to, among other things, have his former fiancée's name removed from the deed on the home they shared in Georgetown. His former fiancée countersued.
http://www.news-graphic.com/news/ex-fiance-claims-thayer-threatened-to-…
Despite the presumption favoring open court records, no record of Thayer's 2011 divorce appeared anywhere in public court records.
The Courier's purpose in seeking to unseal the divorce record was "to protect the broader public interest in preserving the integrity of the judiciary system" and "to 'vet' an elected official's suitability for maintaining the public office which he holds and is seeking re-election to." Against these interest, the Bourbon Circuit Court weighed Thayer and his ex-wife's privacy interests as well as the privacy interests of their children.
The court resolved the tension between "open proceedings to preserve the broad public interest in ensuring a fair and impartial judiciary system" and the "strong public policy in preserving the privacy of children involved in court proceedings" by declaring that records from proceedings subsequent to entry of the final divorce decree that pertained to child custody, timesharing, and support should remained sealed.
The court noted that the Courier's specific purpose, namely, "to vet the Senator's qualifications for his role in public office would not be furthered from gaining access to records that are the subjective opinions of ex-spouses involved in litigation over their children."
The Bourbon Circuit Court unsealed all documents leading up to entry of the final divorce decree In 2012, the 2014 order sealing the records, a November 2014 mediated agreement, and records relating to the Courier's motion to intervene and unseal the records. This was a partial victory for the Courier.
Today we learned that the Cincinnati Enquirer, working with the Courier, successfully petitioned the Grant Circuit Court to unseal the records in Kenton Family Court Judge Dawn Gentry's April 2019 divorce.
The court unsealed the records with minor redactions. Judge Leslie Knight acknowledged error in sealing the entire record, recognizing that there "were clearly less restrictive means available for the court to protect the parties' legitimate privacy interests."
Legal experts disagree on whether divorce records involving public officials should be sealed, but Brechner Center for Freedom of Information Director Frank LoMonte maintains that the public has a "particular interest" in transparency in such cases because of the potential that they might receive preferential treatment from a court.
This is a valid point and one that the Grant Circuit Court implicitly acknowledged in unsealing Judge Gentry's divorce records.
