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Judge rejects state effort to move open record http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcase to federal court
Written by Deborah Yetter
A judge has rejected an attempt by Kentucky officials to shift to federal court a legal fight with the state’s two largest newspapers over access to public records about child abuse deaths and injuries.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, in an 11-page order, found that the dispute involves matters strictly related to Kentucky’s Open Records Act.
He ordered the lawsuit — filed by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader — sent back to Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd for further action.
“The Franklin Circuit Court aptly defined the contours of the Open Records Act as it relates to child protection cases,” Reeves said in his June 1 order.
Courier-Journal lawyer Jon Fleischaker said Reeves’ ruling is correct.
“This was always simply an open records case,” Fleischaker said. “It’s under Kentucky law, and a Kentucky court ought to decide it.”
Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the cabinet’s “primary interest is the protection of Kentucky’s children.”
She said it “will continue to seek judicial guidance” on how to best protect personal and confidential information that may be included in investigations of child fatalities.
Reeves’ ruling is the latest twist in a continuing legal battle in which Shepherd previously had ordered the cabinet to release records of abuse or neglect that result in the death or serious injury of a child.
Shepherd held last year that the newspapers were entitled to such records, ruling in a case involving the 2009 death of a Somerset toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner at an alleged methamphetamine lab in the home of his teenage parents.
Both the 20-month-old boy and his mother, then 14, had been under the supervision of cabinet social workers.
Cabinet officials released extensive documentation in that case. But they refused subsequent requests by the newspapers for information about other child deaths. And in January they enacted “emergency regulations” to sharply limit records the state must disclose in such cases.
The newspapers then filed suit, asking Shepherd to force the cabinet to release the information immediately and to strike down the new regulations.
Cabinet lawyers responded by seeking to transfer the case to federal court, claiming that issues of federal law were involved because the federal government helps fund and regulate state child protective services.
Reeves disagreed, finding no issues to justify transferring the case.
Fleischaker said the newspapers now will ask Shepherd to order cabinet officials to release the records. The newspapers also will seek state reimbursement for legal costs in the dispute.
Shepherd already has ordered the cabinet to pay the newspapers’ $20,700 legal costs in the original lawsuit over the death of the Somerset child.
Written by Deborah Yetter
A judge has rejected an attempt by Kentucky officials to shift to federal court a legal fight with the state’s two largest newspapers over access to public records about child abuse deaths and injuries.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, in an 11-page order, found that the dispute involves matters strictly related to Kentucky’s Open Records Act.
He ordered the lawsuit — filed by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader — sent back to Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd for further action.
“The Franklin Circuit Court aptly defined the contours of the Open Records Act as it relates to child protection cases,” Reeves said in his June 1 order.
Courier-Journal lawyer Jon Fleischaker said Reeves’ ruling is correct.
“This was always simply an open records case,” Fleischaker said. “It’s under Kentucky law, and a Kentucky court ought to decide it.”
Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the cabinet’s “primary interest is the protection of Kentucky’s children.”
She said it “will continue to seek judicial guidance” on how to best protect personal and confidential information that may be included in investigations of child fatalities.
Reeves’ ruling is the latest twist in a continuing legal battle in which Shepherd previously had ordered the cabinet to release records of abuse or neglect that result in the death or serious injury of a child.
Shepherd held last year that the newspapers were entitled to such records, ruling in a case involving the 2009 death of a Somerset toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner at an alleged methamphetamine lab in the home of his teenage parents.
Both the 20-month-old boy and his mother, then 14, had been under the supervision of cabinet social workers.
Cabinet officials released extensive documentation in that case. But they refused subsequent requests by the newspapers for information about other child deaths. And in January they enacted “emergency regulations” to sharply limit records the state must disclose in such cases.
The newspapers then filed suit, asking Shepherd to force the cabinet to release the information immediately and to strike down the new regulations.
Cabinet lawyers responded by seeking to transfer the case to federal court, claiming that issues of federal law were involved because the federal government helps fund and regulate state child protective services.
Reeves disagreed, finding no issues to justify transferring the case.
Fleischaker said the newspapers now will ask Shepherd to order cabinet officials to release the records. The newspapers also will seek state reimbursement for legal costs in the dispute.
Shepherd already has ordered the cabinet to pay the newspapers’ $20,700 legal costs in the original lawsuit over the death of the Somerset child.
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posted by KYJurisDoctor at 5:45 PM
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