Request By:
Roger Gibson, # 162564
Mike Lawrence
Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Michelle D. Harrison, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
At issue in this appeal is whether the McCracken Circuit Court Clerk violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in failing to respond upon receipt of Roger Gibson's written request for a copy of the "Indictment, Judgment of Conviction, Docket Sheet, Guilty Plea, Police Reports and Uniform Offense Report" concerning Indictment No. 02-CR-121. Because records in the custody of circuit court clerks are properly characterized as court records, which are not governed by the Open Records Act, rather than public records within the meaning of KRS 61.870(2), the Attorney General has consistently recognized that circuit court clerks are not subject to the provisions of the Open Records Act. Consequently, the McCracken Circuit Court Clerk cannot be said to have violated the Act in failing to respond upon receipt of Mr. Gibson's request as would otherwise be required by KRS 61.880(1). In our view, 98-ORD-6, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference, is controlling on the facts presented.
That being said, Circuit Court Clerk Mike Lawrence responded to Mr. Gibson's appeal upon receiving notification from this office. According to Mr. Lawrence, his office does not have any record of ever having received Mr. Gibson's April 11, 2008, request; 1 however, Mr. Lawrence nevertheless enclosed a copy of the requested Indictment, Final Judgment, Guilty Plea, Judgment on Guilty Plea, Citation and Case History, advising that his file does not contain any police reports except for the citation but if any such reports exist, "they must be obtained from the Commonwealth['s] Attorney or from the attorney that represented" him. In so doing, the Clerk, to his credit, exceeded his obligations under the Open Records Act; any issues related to records provided to Mr. Gibson would also be moot per 40 KAR 1:030, Section 6 if this appeal was not resolved on the basis of 98-ORD-6.
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.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 Such factual disputes concerning the actual delivery and receipt of a request cannot be resolved in the context of an Open Records appeal.