University rejects request for report
Expert: MSU must provide details of Hubbard incident
More than a month after three men were charged for assaulting three other men on campus, MSU still hasn't released the official incident report.
The university denied a request by The State News for a copy of the police report, stating that Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, allows withholding information if it's an unwarranted invasion of privacy, interferes with law-enforcement proceedings or deprives a person of a fair trial. The State News, however, requested documents even if information had to be blacked out.
The arrested men each have 10 charges against them for the incident in Hubbard Hall, which involved threatening the victims with a gun and pouring gasoline on one of them.
After MSU police would not disclose the incident report, The State News filed a FOIA request with the university's FOIA office on March 3, and received a denial letter dated Friday.
The incident report would shed light on original details of the assault.
In its letter of appeal sent Wednesday, The State News replied that a police incident report is a public record, not an investigating record.
"The reason that we want (the report) for the story is obviously so that we can present both sides of the case," said Nick Mrozowski, editor in chief of The State News.
MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor and MSU's General Counsel Bob Noto referred questions to the MSU FOIA officer.
The officer, Ellen Armentrout, declined to elaborate on her reasons for denying the request beyond what was stated in the letter.
Because of a Michigan Supreme Court case, the university has to disclose the police incident report, said Herschel Fink, a First Amendment and media lawyer who represents newspapers across the state.
"Somebody has to step up and make an issue of it," Fink said. "(The university) is absolutely wrong. If the newspaper does decide to sue, they're going to win and the university is going to end up having to pay attorney fees."
Fink referenced a 1983 Michigan Supreme Court case in which justices concluded it's not sufficient for a department to simply cite FOIA exceptions — it has to show specifically how the release of the document would fit those exceptions.
The case involved a media outlet that wanted a police incident report — the same kind of document The State News is requesting. The media outlet won the case.
"Essentially, it says an incident report is a public record," Fink said, adding that this means the privacy exemption would not apply.
Whether public bodies are required to release information, specifically names of individuals, depends on whether the public's right to know outweighs privacy issues, said Michael J. Steinberg, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
"If it's going to jeopardize an ongoing investigation, sometimes that can be a valid exemption," Steinberg said. "When charges have already been brought, presumably the investigation is already over."
Melissa Domsic can be reached at domsicme@msu.edu.
Published on Thursday, March 30, 2006