AG Jeff Landry loses public records lawsuit against Advocate reporter

Attorney General Jeff Landry lost his fight Thursday to withhold a public record from Andrea Gallo, a reporter at the Advocate | Times-Picayune, who was seeking details about sexual harassment allegations at the Louisiana Department of Justice. Judge Timothy Kelley of the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge said he would release a document detailing allegations made against one of Landry’s top deputies after he redacts the names and identifying information of people who either accused that official of harassment or witnessed it.

“We’re thrilled that Judge Kelley agreed that the public’s right to know what is going on in their government is of paramount importance,” said Gallo after the hearing. During Thursday’s hearing, she said, “Normally it’s not the requestor who gets sued by their own government simply for requesting a record.”

Kelley ruled that the public’s right to know how its government operates outweighs any expectation of privacy held by Pat Magee, who was accused of sexual harassment and heads Landry’s criminal division. Gallo’s attorney, Scott Sternberg, said he hoped the outcome of the case would prevent other elected officials from trying to intimidate citizens requesting public records. Sternberg represents several media organizations in the state on government records requests and is also on the board of directors for the Louisiana Press Association.

“Hopefully, other public records custodians around the state are going to see this and they are going to think twice about suing a requester,” Sternberg said.

Read more: https://lailluminator.com/2021/03/04/ag-leff-landry-loses-public-records-lawsuit-against-advocate-reporter/