Request By:
[NO REQUESTBY IN ORIGINAL]
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General in an open records appeal, and the Attorney General being sufficiently advised, we find that the Boyle Circuit Court Clerk and the Official Court Reporter for the Boyle Circuit Court are not bound by the provisions of the Kentucky Open Records Act, and therefore cannot be said to have violated the Act by their responses to Steve Fitzgerald's request for copies of the actual tape recordings of his trial held on May 28, 1986. We believe that 98-ORD-6 and 99-ORD-214, copies of which are attached hereto and incorporated by reference, are controlling. Mr. Fitzgerald must seek redress for his grievance through the courts.
By letter dated January 31, 2000, Sandy C. Wilder, who was the official court reporter, at the time of Mr. Fitzgerald's 1986 trial, advised this office that there were no tape recordings made of circuit court proceedings during that period, only stenographic notes. She further advised that she no longer had possession of those notes; that they were in the possession of the Circuit Court Judge, Darren Peckler, per Administrative Office of the Court's direction when she left her position as official court reporter in 1990.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.