PAC Issues Binding Opinion Interpreting FOIA Exemption Regarding Fair Trial or Impartial Hearing
The PAC
recently issued a binding opinion finding a public body in violation of FOIA for denying various records pertaining to a fatal car accident. The PAC rejected the public body's reliance on the FOIA exemption contained in section 7(1)(d)(iii) which
allows a public body to withhold information that creates a substantial
likelihood of depriving a person of a fair trial or impartial hearing. PAC Op. 2020-05.
In its opinion, the PAC concluded that a Sheriff’s Office improperly used FOIA 7(1)(d)(iii) to withhold squad car
footage, emergency dispatch audio recordings, and other written crash and
incident reports requested by a reporter regarding a police chase that resulted
in a fatal crash. The Sheriff’s Office had defended its denial of te request by arguing that disclosing the requested records would deprive the
Sheriff’s Office of its right to a fair trial or an impartial hearing in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the Sheriff's Office and individual employees, because releasing the videos would make it more difficult to select a fair and impartial
jury in the trial.
To demonstrate that records are exempt under FOIA section 7(1)(d)(iii), the
Sheriff’s Office was required to show that (1) a trial or adjudication is
pending or truly imminent and (2) that disclosing the requested materials would
more likely than not seriously interfere with the fairness of those
proceedings. Relying on prior Illinois cases and PAC decisions, as well as
cases from other States and federal cases interpreting a similar exemption in
the Federal FOIA statute, the PAC stated that the Sheriff’s Office failed
to specifically explain how or why disclosing the requested records would
deprive the Sheriff’s Office of a fair trial or impartial hearing or prejudice the
jury. The PAC rejected the Sheriff’s Office speculation that the effects of potential publicity
from disclosing the videos could taint the jury pool for the future trial was
conclusory and failed to satisfy the level of proof required to exempt the
requested public records by FOIA. The PAC also noted that the Sheriff’s Office failed to
specifically demonstrate how disclosing the records would substantially deprive
a person of a fair trial or impartial hearing in this particular trial, since most
plaintiffs in pending lawsuits involving automobile fatalities request jury
trials.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink
0 comments:
Post a Comment