Police release pursuit tape
Newspaper says all conditions of lawsuit still not met
The day after it was played in a Douglas County courtroom, a taped copy of radio dispatch communications from a deadly Aug. 26 pursuit was released Wednesday by Lawrence Police.
Officials made the tape available to the public three weeks after the Journal-World first requested it and less than a week after the newspaper filed a lawsuit seeking its release.
 Hear the audio Police radio dispatch |
Officials said the release was not in response to the suit filed Friday in Douglas County District Court, but because prosecutors played a copy of the communications during a hearing Tuesday for Nam Ouk Cho, the 19-year-old Lee’s Summit, Mo., man charged with killing motorist Judith Vellucci in a crash at 31st Street and Nieder Road.
The recording may be heard in its entirety on the Journal-World’s Web site, www.ljworld.com.
The city’s release of the tape does not, however, satisfy the issues raised in the newspaper’s lawsuit.
Police, city and county officials have argued the dispatch tapes in this case could be kept private because they were part of a “criminal investigation record” and did not have to be disclosed until they were played in court.
The Journal-World contends the Kansas Open Records Act says such dispatch recordings must be available to the public regardless of whether they’re introduced in court. It is asking a judge to declare that police, city and county officials violated the law by denying public access to the recordings, and to order them to comply with the law in the future.
The newspaper’s lawsuit also asks a judge to order police to release a full traffic report from the incident, and to find that an “officer’s special report” describing the pursuit is a public record, not a private memorandum between the officer and Chief Ron Olin.
The department previously released a copy of the officer’s special report to the newspaper.
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