{"id":87454,"date":"2017-10-24T18:23:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T22:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=87454"},"modified":"2017-10-24T18:26:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T22:26:37","slug":"why-did-the-clark-county-district-attorneys-office-really-push-to-keep-death-records-secret-just-before-the-vegas-mass-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=87454","title":{"rendered":"Why did the Clark County District Attorney\u2019s Office really push to keep death records secret just before the Vegas mass shooting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coroner\u2019s office can\u2019t keep death records secret, judge rules<\/h1>\n

By Arthur Kane | Las Vegas Review-Journal
\nSeptember 28, 2017<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Clark County Coroner and Medical Examiner office located at 1704 Pinto Lane in Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 23, 2017. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/p><\/div>\n

Autopsy reports are public records in Nevada, a Clark County District Court judge ruled Thursday, providing new transparency in cases of suspicious deaths.<\/p>\n

District Judge Jim Crockett rejected all arguments by the Clark County district attorney\u2019s office, which was representing the coroner in a lawsuit brought by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found the legal arguments insufficient to justify withholding the information,\u201d he told Clark County Deputy District Attorney Laura C. Rehfeldt.<\/p>\n

The Review-Journal filed a lawsuit in July<\/a>\u00a0for autopsy records after the coroner refused to provide reports of recent deaths. The newspaper\u2019s attorneys, Maggie McLetchie and Alina Shell, argued that Nevada\u2019s Public Records Act requires governments to release the documents.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office argued officials could withhold or redact the records based on a 1982 attorney general\u2019s opinion. The county also said state law prohibits the release of records reviewed by oversight committees.<\/p>\n

\u201cNevada governments are wasting taxpayer dollars fighting the plain language of the state\u2019s Public Records Act,\u201d Review-Journal Editor in Chief Keith Moyer said. \u201cThursday\u2019s ruling makes it clear \u2014 again \u2014 that government records are presumed to be open and cannot be hidden from scrutiny because bureaucrats want the public kept in the dark. Governments must follow the law. The Review-Journal will aggressively litigate baseless refusals to release public records. And, as we did Thursday, we\u2019ll win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Review-Journal Managing Editor Glenn Cook said the records are key to understanding the work of crime investigators.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome Review-Journal readers might take offense to the newspaper\u2019s request for autopsy records,\u201d Cook said. \u201cBut coroner\u2019s records are immensely important to the state\u2019s justice system and the accountability of police and numerous other government agencies. Autopsy records, which are public records across the country, will answer important questions about drug abuse, child abuse and other issues in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crockett dismissed the county\u2019s arguments that state law requires records reviewed by outside committees to remain private.<\/p>\n

Crockett said the attorney general\u2019s opinion, which suggested coroners balance privacy and transparency, does not overrule laws that say all records are public unless there is a specific exemption.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/a>Crockett ruled the county could not charge fees for their attorneys to review or redact the public documents, limiting costs to 50 cents per page or $15 per electronic disc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Review-Journal will seek reimbursement from the county for legal fees because the coroner improperly withheld the records, McLetchie said.<\/p>\n

The county has 30 days to appeal the verdict after the order is completed. Without an appeal, the county will have to produce all the requested records by Dec. 28, Crockett ordered.<\/p>\n

Rehfeldt did not know if the county would appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to talk about it,\u201d she told McLetchie and Shell after Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/news\/coroners-office-cant-keep-death-records-secret-judge-rules\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coroner\u2019s office can\u2019t keep death records secret, judge rules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}