The process seems simple, on its face: a news organization requests public records from a public agency, and the agency turns over the documents. It is rarely that simple, and the Record-Searchlight newspaper has been demonstrating just how complicated things can get.
The paper requested documents about an investigation into a county sheriff who resigned, and the county turned over very few of them. The case went to court in 2022, and judgments went in favor of the Record-Searchlight, including an order for the county to pay the paper to reimburse its legal fees.
Reporter Damon Arthur was just trying to report a story when he ended up in the middle of legal purgatory. He joins us for a Sunshine Week interview to unpack the details of the long struggle for public information.