Kentucky

Delinquency and dependency proceedings: Juvenile court proceedings are presumptively closed in Kentucky. But the court may admit those people with a direct interest in the case or in the work of the court. People agreed to by the child and the child’s attorney also may be admitted to the hearing. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 610.070 (West 2011). The media can be excluded from a hearing in circuit court regarding a juvenile’s appeal from an order declaring the transfer statute unconstitutional. Such an exclusion does not violate the media’s First Amendment rights because the juvenile’s “right to a fair trial, and the public’s interest in fostering opportunities for rehabilitation transcend the right of the press to an instantaneous reporting. . . . It was intended that trials of juveniles not be publicized in the news media, as such publicity would possibly deprive the juvenile of a fair trial and, more particularly, would likely diminish his or her prospect for rehabilitation. To exclude the press at the district level, but admit them at the appellate level would tend to nullify the original intent and purpose of the [statute],” the state’s Supreme Court ruled. In such cases, the media also can be denied access to the juvenile court records. F.T.P. v. Courier-Journal & Louisville Times Co., 774 S.W.2d 444, 446 (Ky. 1989).

Delinquency and dependency records: Juvenile court records are confidential and may be disclosed only to certain individuals and agencies designated by statute. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 610.340. The state attorney general found that the disclosure of the fact that a juvenile was wounded during a shooting invaded her privacy. Thus, the Lexington, Ky., police acted properly in redacting her name and her mother’s name from an incident report disclosed to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Ky. Op. Att’y Gen. 96-ORD-115 (1996). More recently, the attorney general found that the Whitley County Police Department violated the state Open Records Act when it denied the Corbin News Journal’s request for radio traffic and a computer-aided dispatch report from an incident in which a child was injured by exploding fireworks. Because these materials were not juvenile court records, the statutory restrictions on disclosure of such were thus inapplicable, according to the opinion. Ky. Op. Att’y. Gen. 10-ORD 161 (2010).

A report of suspected child abuse, neglect or dependency and all information obtained by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services during its investigation into or assessment of the alleged abuse or neglect is confidential and may not be publicly disclosed except in a couple of circumstances. When an adult who is the subject of a report of suspected abuse or neglect publicly reveals or causes to be revealed any significant part of the confidential matter or information, the confidentiality is presumed voluntarily waived, and confidential information and records about that person not already disclosed but related to the information made public may be released if disclosure is in the best interest of the child or necessary for the administration of the cabinet’s duties. Also, the cabinet may publicly disclose information in cases where child abuse or neglect resulted in a child death or near death. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 620.050. Beginning in 2011, two Kentucky newspapers have been involved in a lengthy legal dispute with the cabinet over records involving child deaths or near deaths stemming from abuse or neglect. A judge ordered the state to release documents in 2011, and the governor said his administration would comply with the order, releasing records weekly. But in April 2012, state officials denied a request by the Herald-Leader for child-protection records in the 2009 death of a 7-month-old whose father, claiming the death was accidental, was charged with murder in connection with the fatality. Cabinet officials claimed that the records were exempt because child protection workers never determined that the baby’s death was caused by neglect or abuse — an assertion the newspaper’s lawyer disputed, saying in a newspaper article about the case, “there is simply no requirement of a criminal conviction” for the records to be public. Newspaper in Another Dispute with State Officials over Child Protection Records, Associated Press, Apr. 30, 2012.

The state attorney general held that arrest records and incident reports from a local police department in abuse situations are not exempt from public inspection. Ky. Op. Att’y Gen. 91-12 (1991). The official also found that the state police improperly relied on various confidentiality statutes, including the provision regarding child abuse or neglect reports, in denying a request for investigative files concerning charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and unlawful transaction with a minor involving an adult who was currently a candidate for elective office. The privacy interests of the juveniles involved could be protected by redaction of their names, while the privacy interest of the adult was outweighed by the public’s interest in assessing his fitness to serve in the office for which he was a candidate and its interest in evaluating the performance of the state police, the attorney general ruled. Ky. Op. Att’y. Gen. 93-ORD-42 (1993).

Restrictions on coverage: Kentucky law allows victims and witnesses 12 years old or younger to testify in criminal proceedings involving illegal sexual activity outside the presence of the defendant via video-recorded testimony or closed-circuit television. The statute does not specify whether the media and public may remain in the courtroom when this testimony is broadcast there. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 421.350.