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 Hardin County Detention Center violated KRS 61.880(1) in originally denying Tommy Southard's June 20, 2013, request for records reflecting Breanna Nichole Renfro's booking and release dates based on his inability to appear in person and present identification. Upon receipt of notification of Mr. Southard's open records appeal, the center acknowledged its error, 1 mailing Mr. Southard copies of Ms. Renfro's facility admissions report, RAP sheet, and a news release relating to her arrest, but redacting her Social Security Number, address, telephone number, and date of birth from the records disclosed. The center advised Mr. Southard that the redacted information was excluded from public inspection by KRS 61.878(1)(a).
Kentucky's courts have recognized that an individual who "enters on the public way, breaks a law, or inflicts a tort on his fellow man . . . forfeits his privacy right to a certain extent."
Zink v. Commonwealth, 902 S.W.2d 825, 828 (Ky. App. 1994) citing OAG 76-511. Under this line of reasoning, the law does not approve blanket nondisclosure of personal information relating to an individual charged with a crime. Nevertheless, Mr. Southard specifically requested Ms. Renfro's booking and release date, and has raised no objection to redactions of personal information from the records disclosed to him on July 12, 2013. We trust, therefore, that he was satisfied with the ultimate disposition of his 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:
Tommy Southard, # 159170Danny R. AllenJennifer B. Oldham
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 The center explained that the "employee who reviewed the request was unfamiliar with the requirements of the open records statutes and made the denial in error."