Request By:
[NO REQUESTBY IN ORIGINAL]
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; Amye Bensenhaver, 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 Commonwealth's Attorney for the 2nd Judicial District did not violate the Open Records Act in denying Billy L. Barnett, Jr.'s, May 25, 2000, request for documentation pertaining to the submission of evidence for DNA testing to a Nashville, Tennessee lab and to the FBI lab, and the results of the tests. We believe that 96-ORD-93, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference, is controlling. Records relating to criminal investigations and criminal litigation that are compiled and maintained by Commonwealth's Attorneys may be permanently withheld pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(h), upon which the Commonwealth's Attorney for the 2nd Judicial District relied. We therefore affirm his denial of Mr. Barnett's request.
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 proceedings.