In the third installment of Day Four of “Mississippi: The Secret State,” the Sun-Herald‘s Robin Fitzgerald recounts (her? his?) newspaper’s own experience in fighting law-enforcement secrecy, in Harrison jail beating prompts newspaper’s pursuit of records:
GULFPORT –An inmate’s fatal beating at the Harrison County jail in 2006 raised questions the Sun Herald believed public records could help answer.
The newspaper filed a series of public-records requests with the Sheriff’s Department, but the agency denied most of the requests, claiming the documents were not public records because they were part of a criminal investigation.
The newspaper filed a lawsuit in February 2007, a year after the inmate’s death, and won a key decision – a state court judge ruled that the newspaper was denied public records in violation of the Mississippi Public Records Act. Further, the judge ruled that records compiled by a law enforcement agency as part of its operation are public records and are not exempt. …
This story is, I’m afraid, a bit of a Jerry Mitchell-style chop-up, so only midway through it do we learn that
The incident that prompted the newspaper’s lawsuit was the unprovoked assault on Jessie Lee Williams Jr., who died of brain trauma from a beating in the jail booking room. The incident led to a federal investigation of a conspiracy to deprive inmates’ civil rights under color of law. …
Former jailer Ryan Teel was convicted in August of charges including the murder of Jessie Williams. In November, Teel was sentenced to life in prison and nine ex-jailers were sentenced on guilty pleas related to the conspiracy to deprive inmates’ rights under color of law.
Meanwhile, between those two grafs we glean that
The Sun Herald wanted copies of inmate grievances, which the newspaper believed would show that authorities over the jail had been warned of a pattern of abuse by jailers. The newspaper also wanted a copy of the surveillance tapes that recorded the fatal beating of Williams.
Chancery Court Judge Jim Persons ruled in the newspaper’s favor, but he couldn’t force the sheriff or the state to turn over records no longer in their possession. The newspaper then filed a motion in federal court to ask that sealed records in the federal case be opened and the newspaper be given copies of the documents it wanted.
U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge John M. Roper denied the newspaper access to the video and the inmate complaints, citing the federal investigation and a pending trial. However, the judge reviewed sealed records, ordered several opened and prohibited parties in the case from sealing future documents without the court’s prior approval.
Finally, only after Teel’s conviction, a federal court order let the Sun-Herald at a copy of the beating video, which it promptly slapped up on its website. But it still hasn’t received copies of the inmate complaints (since they’re part of the federal investigation — but whether it’s still ongoing, the story doesn’t say).
By the lights of the Sun-Herald‘s attorney Henry Laird, though, this lawsuit — filed by the paper’s publisher, itself a subsidiary of McClatchy Newspapers — set a precedent that “promotes openness in government” and was “a significant decision to strengthen the state’s public records laws.”
“The Mississippi Public Records Act is to be construed liberally in favor of openness and narrowly against any exemptions,” Laird said.
“There are two exemptions which law enforcement has over the years misinterpreted by claiming exemptions that weren’t allowed. Unless it is directly related to an ongoing criminal investigation and unless the record is compiled by a law enforcement agency as part of a criminal investigation, it’s not exempt.”
A cold comfort to Paula and Harold Kennedy up there in Tremont, I imagine, and colder still to Mr. and Mrs. Jessie Lee Williams, Sr.
Corruption in government, corruption in the legal system, lack of "sunshine " on all things public — I now know why. According to Errol Castens at the Daily Journal it’s GRAVEL ROADS. Actually he doesn’t connect all of these, but it’s just odd that with all the "backwardness " which still exists in The Magnolia State, that Sunday’s feature article would be about gravel roads.
http://djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=265959&pub=1&div=News
When public officials think gravel roads are “good enough” for their constituents, is it any wonder what else they think is “good enough”? When the constituents are unwilling to pay for better than gravel roads, is it any wonder that nothing else is much better? Is it inability or unwillingness at work?
Maybe gravel is “good enough” if there is something you need to pave over elsewhere.
Not that “Sister Mary’s” shoes are an example of keeping something illegal out of sight; but I do recall my mother telling the story of a patient who walked out of the Cedars nursing home and got stuck in the mud. The staff had to literally pull her out; however, her shoes didn’t come with her. The area soon became a paved parking lot with “Sister Mary’s” shoes forever sealed under the asphalt.
No telling what’s under some of those paved roads.
[...] dorm at Ole Miss was named for them. And remember the Harrison County jail-beating death of Jessie Lee Williams, Jr. that transformed Wes Teel’s son Ryan (h/t Randy) from jailer into lifer? In the Teel story, [...]