Gannett GP Media, Inc. v. Ohio Dept. of Pub. Safety

Citations

• 2017 Ohio 4248

Syllabus

Core Terms: public record court of claims R.C. 2743.75 ambiguous overly broad revise constitutional privacy security abatement recede objection additional evidence strike. Procedural Posture: Requester objected to special master's determination that its request for all correspondence among respondent's employees regarding a deployment was ambiguous and overly broad. Respondent objected to special master's determination that trooper names were not exempted by security records and Fourteenth Amendment privacy exceptions once they returned from deployment. Overview: Requester newspaper sought: 1) all communications of the State Highway Patrol regarding the deployment of Ohio troopers to assist another state via an agreement under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, R.C. 5502.40, 2) the names of the troopers deployed, and, 3) the assistance agreement. The parties accepted the special master's determination that the bulk of the information in the agreement form was public. The court found that requester's request for \any and all communication\ to or from any employee of the Highway Patrol \regarding the deployment of these officers\ was insufficiently specific to identify particular records, and that respondent had sufficiently met its obligation to provide requester with the opportunity and information to revise this request. Noting respondent's admission that there was no evidence of violent threats or online harassment since returning from employment, the court found that the names of the troopers were no longer exempt under the Fourteenth Amendment right of privacy or statutory security records exception that applied during their deployment. Outcome: The court granted requester's motion to strike additional evidence submitted by respondent. The court overruled the objections of both requester and respondent, and adopted the special master's report and recommendation as its own.