Public Interest Trumps Privacy in Kentucky Official’s Assault Case

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The Kentucky attorney general put it as gently as possible. He said Lexington police department incorrectly interpreted the state’s Open Records Act when it decided that the privacy rights of the vice mayor outweighed the public’s interest in knowing he was accused of assaulting a car salesman. A public official, the AG opinion said, “forfeits, at least to some extent, his privacy interest, and the public’s interest ‘in seeing that alleged criminal activity is thoroughly investigated and vigorously prosecuted without favoritism or bias’ … is correspondingly heightened.” (10/19/05)