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 the Department of Corrections, Division of Probation and Parole, properly relied on KRS 439.510, 1 incorporated into the Open Records Act by KRS 61.878(1)(l), 2 in denying Jonathan Walker's February 17, 2014, request for a copy of "the admissions forms that [his] probation officer said that [he] signed admitting to being positive for drugs on November 15, 2011." 3 01-ORD-120 is dispositive of the issue presented in this appeal. A copy of that open records decision is attached and the analysis set forth therein adopted in its entirety. Accord, 11-ORD-169.
Here, as in 01-ORD-120, the requested admission form, which Mr. Walker read and signed, does not reveal "sources of confidential information" or "matters of opinion, and comments of a personal and nonfactual nature," the interest KRS 439.510 was purposed to subserve according to the Kentucky Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Bush, 740 S.W.2d 943, 944 (Ky. 1987). Notwithstanding the agency's "expansive construction" of KRS 439.510, we must defer to that construction. Accordingly, we affirm the agency's denial of Mr. Walker'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 proceeding.
Distributed to:
Jonathan Walker, # 237555James L. WagnerLinda M. Keeton
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 KRS 439.510 provides:
All information obtained in the discharge of official duty by any probation or parole officer shall be privileged and shall not be received as evidence in any court. Such information shall not be disclosed directly or indirectly to any person other than the court, board, cabinet, or others entitled under KRS 439.250 to 439.560 to receive such information, unless otherwise ordered by such court, board or cabinet. Information shall be made available to sex offender treatment programs operated or approved by the Department of Corrections or the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities who request the information in the course of conducting an evaluation or treatment pursuant to KRS 439.265(6), 532.045(3), or 532.050(4).
2 KRS 61.878(1)(l) provides:
Public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the General Assembly[.]
3 Mr. Walker submitted his request on February 17, and the request was denied on February 22, 2014. He initiated this appeal in an undated letter that reached this office on March 27, 2014. KRS 197.025(3) requires all persons confined in a penal facility to challenge any denial of an open record with the Attorney General "within twenty (20) days of the denial." Mr. Walker initiated this appeal some 33 days after the agency denied his request. His appeal may, therefore, also be time-barred by virtue of KRS 197.025(3).