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Court: sheriff's department should have released flier report

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  1. Freedom of Information
A Wisconsin newspaper won its appeal of an open-records case involving a heated 2006 race for county sheriff. The Portage…

A Wisconsin newspaper won its appeal of an open-records case involving a heated 2006 race for county sheriff.

The Portage Daily Register filed suit against the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department after it had denied its 2006 request for a report about possible illegal campaign fliers in the sheriff’s re-election campaign.

The county circuit court backed the sheriff, who argued that he could not comply with the request because the information had been forwarded to the district attorney’s office and was part of an ongoing investigation.

The District 4 Court of Appeals found, however, that denying public access to an investigative report because it has been turned over to the district attorney is not a valid reason to reject an open-records request.

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