FORT SMITH -- The Arkansas State Police needs more than the assertion from a spokesman that an investigation is ongoing to justify refusal of an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request for release of dash-camera video, a judge has ruled.
In a three-page ruling issued Monday, Sebastian County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor ordered the state police to release dash-camera videos in five traffic cases being handled by Fort Smith attorney W. Whitfield Hyman.
"The Attorney General has reviewed the order; however, no decision has been made at this time regarding an appeal," attorney general's office spokesman Judd Deere wrote in an email seeking comment Tuesday.
The attorney general's office represented the state police in the lawsuit.
Hyman didn't respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Hyman sued Bill Sadler in his official capacity as state police public information officer for rejecting his Freedom of Information Act requests on the grounds they were exempt as part of an undisclosed, or ongoing, investigation. Hyman contended an investigation terminated with an arrest.
Sadler testified in a hearing last month that state police policy was that a criminal investigation was ongoing until it was adjudicated in court or a prosecutor dropped the charges.
Tabor ruled that more than Sadler's assertion that an investigation was ongoing was needed to justify withholding the videos. He noted there was no testimony in the hearing from troopers or prosecutors on the status of the cases for which Hyman sought videos.
"It would seem to the court that in any determination of whether an investigation remains ongoing, those are the sources who must be able to articulate the facts that justify the characterization of a case as open," Tabor wrote.
He wrote that Freedom of Information Act requests to the state police would have to be considered on a case-by-case basis rather than the "blanket policy of the state police that every investigation remained open pending adjudication."
Responding to a request for comment Tuesday, Sadler wrote in an email that state police officials had not met with legal counsel in the Arkansas Attorney General's office to review the case.
"Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, we will meet internally to discuss options that will conform with Judge Tabor's decision," Sadler wrote in the email.
Hyman was trying to get the state police dash-camera videos for his representation of clients in criminal cases involving a variety of charges, including driving while intoxicated, possession of drug paraphernalia and carrying a weapon, his lawsuit said. In one case, he sought the video for a client's drivers license control hearing.
Tabor wrote the law on the case was unclear. He noted Sadler relied on legal advice in justifying his rejection of Hyman's requests.
Sadler also advised Hyman of other means, such as discovery procedures, to obtain the videos in the criminal cases he was handling, Tabor's ruling said. Sadler also testified that if a prosecutor wanted the videos released, they would have been produced.
"In the court's opinion, that represented defendant's respect for the local decision of whether an investigation remained open," Tabor wrote.
In a sixth case Hyman included in the lawsuit, he asked for dash-camera video as part of his attempt to investigate potential wrongdoing by a state police trooper.
Sadler rejected the Freedom of Information Act request for the video because the trooper was not suspended or terminated following an internal investigation, which would have triggered release of the video and other information under the act.
Tabor wrote that Sadler properly applied the Freedom of Information Act in that instance in refusing Hyman's request for release of the video.
State Desk on 04/12/2017