Judge ordered to reconsider sealing of Planned Parenthood shooting documents
The Colorado Supreme Court told the judge in the Planned Parenthood shooting case to reconsider his sealing of court records in light of recent developments.
The Colorado Supreme Court told the judge in the Planned Parenthood shooting case to reconsider his sealing of court records in light of recent developments.
Whether emails are retained by governments in Colorado is “really sort of an honor system thing,” State Archivist George Orlowski told us. “The senders and recipients of emails have to decide whether there’s something important that needs to be preserved.”
Sen. John Kefalas and Rep. Dan Pabon deserve thanks for their valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to guarantee the public’s right to inspect its records. Their bill, SB 16-037, would have clarified that Coloradans enjoy the right to obtain copies of public records in the same digitized format in which government maintains those records.
Rochelle Reynolds’ pursuit of documents on the death of her son illustrates how the criminal justice records law in Colorado sometimes keeps people in the dark.
The final report of a state task force on police body cameras does not recommend when or under what circumstances captured video should be released to the public.
Opposition from a state agency and several local governments doomed proposed legislation intended to modernize Colorado’s open-records law by requiring that public records kept in database formats be available to the public in similar formats.
The judge in the Planned Parenthood shooting case defended his sealing of court records, arguing that news organizations did not have a First Amendment or Colorado constitutional right to inspect the records while the police investigation was ongoing.
If we don’t take steps to start requiring logical, smart, and efficient archiving methods of government electronic data soon, the next time the citizens of Colorado are victims of government negligence or incompetence, as happened in Flint, Mich., we may have more than government to blame.
An El Paso County District Court judge has until Feb. 16 to justify his sealing of court records in the case against accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled.
More than two dozen news media organizations asked the Colorado Supreme Court to order an El Paso County District Court judge to unseal records in the case against accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear or justify their continued sealing under the First Amendment.