Centre County Right to Know Dispute Continues to Grow

The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records just got pulled into the fight over Right to Know requests in Centre County.

Public defender Dave Crowley submitted a Right to Know request to the county earlier this month – but that request was denied. Crowley wanted to see certain county phone records of Common Pleas Judge Bradley Lunsford.

Centre County responded to the request last week. County administrator Tim Boyde wrote that the county had to deny the request because an out-of-county judge has ordered Centre County to turn down any request related to judges or prosecutors.

Now Crowley is appealing that denial to the Office of Open Records, arguing that Huntingdon County Senior Judge Stewart Kurtz was wrong to keep the county from releasing the phone records.

“To the extent that Judge Kurtz has deemed these Verizon invoices to be judicial records outside the scope of the Right to Know Law, he is in error,” Crowley writes in his appeal. “Itemized billing statements from a cellular telephone company are financial records within the meaning of the Right to Know Act.”

The dispute over Right to Know requests is complicated and nuanced.

Two judges and the district attorney are currently suing the county for releasing some of their phone records to defense attorneys.  Defense attorneys used these records in criminal cases to unsuccessfully argue that judges may have been biased toward prosecutors during trial.

The judges and DA argue that the phone records are judicial records that the county had no authority to release; the county disagrees, claiming the records are public financial documents they were legally obligated to provide. Although Kurtz has agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered the county not to release any more phone records, the county plans to appeal that ruling.

In his appeal to the Office of Open Records, Crowley attacks the reasoning behind Kurtz’s decision.

“The documents in question are clearly not judicial records because they are not generated or held by the judiciary,” Crowley writes. “…The documents are not protected by privilege or exempt from disclosure by any law or regulation.”

Bruce Castor, a lawyer for Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller, says that the Office of Open Records is not the proper forum to dispute Kurtz’s ruling against the county. He has also expressed confidence that the county’s appeal will fail.

Crowley says his appeal is not an attempt to influence the interlocking lawsuits between the county, the judges and the DA. He says he only wants to see if judges and prosecutors were texting during criminal trials.

“I don’t have a dog in their fight,” Crowley says. “I’m here to make sure our clients were not prejudiced by an unfair trial.”

Crowley says the Office of Open Records has assigned his request to “a hearing officer,” but he is unsure when the office will make a decision.