Documents in the lawsuits brought against Centre County by two of its judges are now available to the public.
Magisterial District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker and Common Please Judge Jonathan Grine both filed lawsuits against the county last Monday, but the court documents themselves have been off-limits to the public until now. The lawsuits deal with allegations that the county government illegally provided copies of the judges’ cell phone records to attorneys who filed Right to Know requests with the county.
Both judges filed motions to unseal the documents after the Centre County Commissioners openly discussed the lawsuits at a public meeting.
“In an effort to protect Plaintiff from further disclosure of [their] private information and further violation of [their] right to privacy, Plaintiff requested that the Court seal Plaintiff’s complaint,” the motions to unseal read. “… Because the County has not respected the fact that the case was filed under seal…the public has recieved incomplete information about the nature of the case.”
Though the lawsuits are two separate filings, both judges are represented by the law firm of McNees, Wallace & Nurick and both lawsuits make similar allegations. Gillette-Walker’s suit names the State College law firm of Shubin and McGraw as a defendant alongside the county, while Grine’s suit also names the Harrisburg-based McShane Law Firm.
Grine and Gillette-Walker say the county violated their privacy and Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law by releasing their cell phone records to attorneys from the law firms in question. In a number of criminal cases over the past several months, 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 prosecutors. None of the records speak to the contents of the text messages, and only list the times they were sent and received.
Centre County Solicitor Louis Glantz has told StateCollege.com the county released the records because they involved county-provided cell phones for county employees, making them public financial records. Although courts are typically subject to very few Right to Know requests because of the sensitive nature of judicial work, Glantz says financial records are considered open to the public.
But both Grine and Gillette-Walker disagree, saying the county overstepped its authority. Both lawsuits reference language in the Right to Know law that prohibits releasing records that contain “all or part of a person’s phone number.” The lawsuits also argue that just because the county has access to certain judicial records, the county doesn’t have the authority to release them because the judiciary has its own Right to Know officer.
“The fact that a government employee’s cellular telephone is provided by the government and that government business may be discussed over a personal telephone does not make that telephone any less ‘personal’ within the meaning of the Right-to-Know Law,” Grine’s complaint reads.
Grine’s lawsuit asks the court to declare that the county was wrong to release his cell phone records and to prevent similar disclosures in the future. Gillette-Walker makes similar requests, and also asks the court to force the law firm of Shubin and McGraw to destroy the copies of the records it received.
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller is also suing the county over similar Right to Know allegations, which is the latest in a series of legal clashes with the county commissioners in recent months.
Right to Know requests in the county were also temporarily restricted by a court order, which the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania considered challenging in federal court. That order has since been lifted.
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