Iowa prosecutor tells university to ignore public records request

An Iowa county prosecutor has told the University of Iowa to ignore newspapers’ requests for public records related to sexual assault allegations against members of the school’s football team. Both the Des Moines Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen have asked to see records related to the investigation — and the Press-Citizen actually filed a lawsuit demanding those records — but on advice from Johnson County prosecutor Janet Lyness, the university is refusing to release any related records. Lyness acknowledges there is no case law to support her gag order but said she is relying on advice from the Iowa attorney general’s office to treat this matter as she would a grand jury investigation.