Centre County Attacks ‘Baseless’ Request from District Attorney

Centre County has some harsh words about the latest legal assault from the Centre County District Attorney.

District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller wants the county held in contempt of court, but the county’s attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer calls that request a “baseless, vexatious improper and unverified Motion” that the court should reject.

In court documents filed Monday, Maierhofer “respectfully prays” that the Centre County Court of Common Pleas denies Parks Miller’s request. She also asks the court to force Parks Miller to pay fines and attorney’s fees.

Parks Miller is currently suing the county for releasing some of her phone records to defense attorneys who filed Right to Know requests with the county. She claims the county knowingly violated state law and county policy by releasing the records because the county has no authority to release judicial records. 

The county has argued the records are actually public financial records that the county was legally obligated to release. An out-of-county judge has ruled in favor of Parks Miller, but the county is appealing that decision to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

Parks Miller wants the county held in contempt because she believes the county acted in “flagrant violation” of a court order. When Huntingdon County Judge Stewart Kurtz ruled in Parks Miller’s favor, he issued an order telling Centre County not to fill any more RTK requests for judicial records and to instead forward the requests to the proper office.

Shortly after that order was issued, the county received a request from public defender David Crowley, asking for phone records for Judge Bradley Lunsford and records of texts between Lunsford and Parks Miller. Centre County denied that request, citing Kurtz’s order as the reason why. 

In the motion for contempt, Parks Miller and Castor argued that Centre County actually violated Kurtz’s order by not forwarding the request to the District Attorney’s office. They say that Kurtz’s order specifically orders the county not to respond to such requests at all, and that a denial still counts as a response and a willful violation of the order.

The county is now firing back at that argument. In her latest court filing, Maierhofer says the county followed the order to the letter by forwarding the request to the Court Administrator’s office. She says that was the right course of action and the correct office to contact, and not the DA’s office, because the request was specifically for a judge’s records.

Maierhofer goes on to attack the motion for contempt as improperly filed, filled with unsupported claims, and calls it “baseless and unfounded.”

However, Judge Kurtz has agreed to Parks Miller’s request for a hearing on the matter. Both sides of the lawsuit will meet in court on July 14 at 1:30 p.m. to make their arguments in person.

Castor has expressed confidence that Centre County will be held in contempt, and points out that Parks Miller has been successful in her other actions against the county. 

He says that Kurtz’s order prevents the county from responding to any requests “relating” to Parks Miller. Since Crowley’s request asked for records involving both Judge Lunsford and Parks Miller, he says the county purposefully violated the order.

Crowley has since appealed his denied request to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. No decision has been announced on that appeal. Castor has expressed concerns that the county has purposefully given Crowley a vehicle to dispute Kurtz’s order through the OOR as an attempt to contravene the court’s authority.

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