Judge Kistler Repeals Order Limiting Right to Know Requests

An administrative order that may have limited the information Centre County residents can request from their government has been lifted.

On Tuesday, Centre County President Judge Thomas Kistler rescinded an administrative order he originally signed on March 19. The now-defunct order required the county government to deny any pending Right to Know requests that dealt with judges or other members of the county court system.

The order also stipulated that the county should forward these requests and any copies to the Centre County Court Administrator, who would decide whether to fill the requests. Kistler said in an email that the order came out of a meeting that included input from representatives from the county courts, the county government and the state judiciary.

The decision to repeal the order comes at time when the county’s handling of Right to Know requests has come under intense scrutiny. Centre County Common Pleas Judge Jonathan Grine and District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller are both suing the county for alleged violations of the Right to Know law and invasions of privacy.

Their lawsuits stem from the fact that several defense attorneys have used records of text messages between judges and prosecutors (obtained through Right to Know requests) to allege bias and preferential treatment in favor of the DA’s office. None of the records obtained speak to the contents of the messages, and only lists the times they were sent and received. 

Centre County Commissioner Louis Glantz has told StateCollege.com that the county released those records because they involved county employees and records for county-provided phones – making them public financial records. Grine and Parks Miller disagree.

“It is more than clear from the Right to Know Law and Pennsylvania case law that the records of the judiciary, except for financial records, are not subject to disclosure,” Grine wrote in an email last week. “Providing my phone number and related information to any third party is a violation of the Right to Know Law as phone numbers and call logs are not financial records.”

Bruce Castor, an attorney for Parks Miller, has also told StateCollege.com that Parks Miller’s cell phone was paid for by the district attorney’s office through funds confiscated from criminals – meaning the county had no right to release the records. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania took issue with the administrative order before Kistler repealed it. Witold Walczak told StateCollege.com that the ACLU-PA threatened to challenge the order in federal court if it wasn’t repealed. 

Huntingdon County Senior Judge Stewart Kurtz – who is overseeing Grine’s lawsuit – signed an order that temporarily stayed the administrative order only one day before Kistler rescinded it himself.

Grine deferred comment to his lawyer, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Walczak also could not immediately be reached for comment.