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 Kentucky State Police violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in its disposition of inmate Joseph Simpson's March 20, 2016, request for copies of all disciplinary records pertaining to Mark Gillingham. For the reasons stated below, we find this appeal untimely.
Mr. Simpson's appeal, dated April 23, 2016, was received in this office on April 26, 2016. In describing the background to his appeal, Mr. Simpson states that he has made previous requests to the KSP for the same records, including an identical request that was partially denied on November 23, 2015.
KRS 197.025(3) provides that an inmate must appeal any denial of an open records request within 20 days. In this case, those 20 days expired in December 2015. As we decided in 14-ORD-054 (copy attached), a subsequent request for the same records does not revive the appeal rights forfeited by an inmate's previous failure to appeal within the allotted time. Therefore, incorporating the reasoning in 14-ORD-054, we find Mr. Simpson's appeal untimely due to the expiration of his appeal time from the November 23 denial. Accordingly, we do not reach the merits of the appeal.
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 proceedings.