Opinion
Opinion By: Andy Beshear,Attorney General;James M. Herrick,Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney for the Fiftieth Judicial Circuit violated the Open Records Act in connection with inmate Steve Fitzgerald's December 5, 2016, request for copies of records. For the following reasons, we find no violation of the Act.
On December 5, 2016, Mr. Fitzgerald made a request for the following:
Dispatch transmitted messages between officers working my case. Statements of people who testified against me. Pictures of said victims injurys [ sic ]. Police report. See the letter that I have attached to this request. Requesting tape recordings of victim, testimony that caused the police to believe I wronged Mr. Smith. Reports or documentation from Hospital "signatures."
The letter referred to on his request form spelled out the records in greater detail, but all were documents relating to his criminal case.
The record does not reflect whether the Commonwealth's Attorney responded to the December 5 request. The request itself, however, recites the fact that Mr. Fitzgerald had made a prior request for the same records in September and it had been denied. Since we do not have the date of the previous denial, we cannot determine for certain whether Mr. Fitzgerald's appeal is timely brought under KRS 197.025(3).
We find, however, that this appeal may be denied on its merits, as 00-ORD-116, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference, is dispositive of the issue on appeal. As records compiled and maintained by the Commonwealth's Attorney that pertain to criminal litigation, the requested records are forever excluded from public inspection by operation of KRS 61.878(1)(h).
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 must be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.