Arguments presented in chase record case
Newspaper, city dispute whether lawsuit is moot
A judge heard arguments Friday in the Journal-World’s lawsuit to stop Lawrence Police and other officials from illegally concealing dispatch recordings and other records.
The lawsuit came in the aftermath of the Aug. 26 police pursuit of driver Nam Ouk Cho, in which the fleeing suspect’s car struck and killed a motorist at a busy intersection on the city’s southwest side.
The suit was filed when the city refused to release dispatch recordings and other records from the chase on grounds they were not public records, but part of a criminal investigation. Hours after the suit was filed in September, however, the city released some of the records being sought. It released the dispatch recording after it had been played in a courtroom weeks after the crash.
Friday in Douglas County District Court, attorneys for both sides made oral arguments for about an hour before Judge Paula Martin.
The city and county are asking Martin to dismiss the suit. They say the issues are moot because the documents have been released.
The newspaper argued the public airing of the tape and piecemeal release of other records did not satisfy its lawsuit, which asks Martin to find that officials did not comply with the Kansas Open Records Act. The act is the state law meant to keep government open to the public.
After Friday’s hearing, Michael Merriam, the Topeka attorney representing the newspaper, said the question in dispute was whether such records could be hidden from the public in the future.
“We’re asking the court to determine the nature of these documents, which is a matter still in dispute,” he said.
The city also initially refused to release a Lawrence Police Department “officer’s special report” from the chase, saying it was exempt from public release because it was an internal memorandum.
The city eventually released the report while maintaining it wasn’t required to do so. In court Friday, assistant city manager David Corliss said he now was aware of a legal ruling saying that if an internal memorandum doesn’t express opinions, it must be open to the public.
The next step is for Martin to rule on the defendants’ motion to dismiss, but she didn’t give a timeline for her decision.
According to the officer’s special report, the pursuit ended at 31st Street and Nieder Road, where Cho struck and killed motorist Judith Vellucci of Lawrence. Cho is charged with second-degree murder.
Despite the officer’s report, Lawrence Police Chief Ron Olin later said the pursuit ended a mile short of the crash site because officers were being outrun.