Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Amye L. 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 Kentucky State Reformatory properly relied on KRS 197.025(1) in denying Juan Sanders-El's October 2, 2011, request for records reflecting "recorded phone calls dialed to" twelve separate phone numbers "from August 2006 until April 2011." Mr. Sanders-El raised a nearly identical issue in an appeal that culminated in 11-ORD-170. That open records decision, which was not appealed to circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5)(a), has the force and effect of law as it relates to the propriety of KSR's denial of Mr. Sanders-El's earlier request for records of phone calls, and the legal analysis contained therein is dispositive of the issue presented in this appeal. Mr. Sanders-El cannot "collaterally" attack the holding in 11-ORD-170 by slightly modifying his earlier request and thereafter asserting that disclosure of these calls does "not pose a threat to anybody . . . [or] to the security of the institution." Here, as in 11-ORD-170, we find that "KSR satisfied its burden of proof under KRS 61.880(2)(c), and is therefore entitled to withhold the [phone] records on the basis of KRS 197.025(1)."
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.
Distributed to:
Juan Sanders-El, # 131019Marc AbeloveAlea Amber Arnett