Willful and Intentional Failure to Comply with FOIA Requires Actual Evidence
An Illinois court recently addressed a complaint against the Village of Prairie Grove alleging the Village willfully and intentionally
failed to comply with FOIA in Puryear v. Village of River Grove, 2016 IL App(2d) 150378-U (May 16, 2016). The court ruled in favor of the Village in this case, finding no evidence of bad faith or willfulness.
Plaintiff
was issued a citation for not wearing a seatbelt during a traffic stop. He then filed a FOIA request with the Village seeking among other things, documents, audio, and video related to
the citation and stop. The Village
responded by producing the patrol log, a copy of the citation, the officer’s
handwritten notes, and a picture. It did not produce any video, stating that no
video or audio was available at the time due to a software malfunction. Plaintiff then submitted a second FOIA
request, seeking documents relating to the malfunction. The following day, Plaintiff submitted a third
FOIA request, seeking any and all video and audio from any police vehicles driven
by the Officer who stopped him for the 10 days before and 10 days after he was
issued the citation. The Village
responded to both requests, providing emails regarding the malfunction, and
five DVDs of video of stops for the period claimed. One of the DVDs contained a video of the stop
in which Plaintiff was issued the citation.
Plaintiff then filed a FOIA complaint against the Village
alleging that it willfully and intentionally failed to comply with FOIA when it
failed to produce the video of his stop in response to his first FOIA
request. The circuit court ruled in favor of the Village, and Plaintiff appealed.
The Appellate
Court agreed with the circuit court, finding no evidence to indicate bad faith
or willfulness on the Village's part when it responded to all three FOIA requests. The court noted that the
Plaintiff’s only witness was himself, and he failed to show any evidence to
substantiate his claims that the Village fabricated the equipment
malfunction.
Post Authored by Erin Baker, Ancel Glink
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