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 Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex did not violate the Open Records Act in the disposition of Uriah Pasha's December 9, 2011, request for a copy of his "Dec. 2011, correspondence (s) [sic] to EKCC -- Offender Information Specialist Sonya Wright and her responses thereto." On appeal, Mr. Pasha asserts that Ms. Wright is concealing a December 7, 2011, letter he sent her and her response to that letter. EKCC denied Mr. Pasha's request on December 12, 2011, advising him that no responsive records exist. The record on appeal confirms EKCC's position.
In supplemental correspondence directed to this office, EKCC provided the following chronology:
December 12, 2011 Offender Information Specialist Sonya Wright receives Mr. Pasha's December 9 request for his December 2011 correspondence to her and her December 2011 correspondence to him;
December 12, 2011 Ms. Wright issues a response to Mr. Pasha, advising him that no responsive records exist;
December , 2011 1 Ms. Wright receives correspondence from Mr. Pasha sometime after December 12 but before December 14 that is not an open records request;
December 14, 2011 Ms. Wright responds to Mr. Pasha's non-open records correspondence received after December 12[.]
Mr. Pasha offers no evidence to dispute this chronology such as a copy of the December 7, 2011, letter he purportedly mailed to Ms. Wright or her response thereto.
Ms. Wright received no correspondence from Mr. Pasha in December before December 12. She acknowledges receipt of a letter from Mr. Pasha after she mailed her December 12 response. That letter arrived either later that day, the following day (December 13), or the day after that (December 14). She acknowledged that she responded to that letter on December 14. This correspondence was not responsive to his request because it arrived after his request reached Ms. Wright's office. Mr. Pasha vaguely references a letter he sent her on December 7, but does not enclose a copy, then fast-forwards to December 14, asserting:
On 12/12/2011, she claimed no such record exist [sic]. But on 12/14/2011 she writes me and claim [sic.] she had nothing to do with seg. time.
Absent proof of the claimed December 7 letter and response, Ms. Wright's December 12 statement cannot be impugned. Indeed, her "good faith should not be impugned unless there is some reason to believe the supposed documents" exist. 95-ORD-96, p. 3. Mr. Pasha offers no such proof.
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:
Uriah Pasha, # 092028Sonya WrightAmy V. Barker
Footnotes
Footnotes