Judges: WRITTEN BY: Paul L. Douglas, Attorney General; John R. Thompson, Deputy Attorney General.
Filed Date: 7/25/1979
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
REQUESTED BY: Imogene Bruce, Administrative Assistant, Crime Victim's Reparations Board. Can the name and file of a rape victim involved in a claim with the Crime Victim's Reparations Board be kept confidential and withheld from the news media?
No.
At the present time, there exists no legislation which would allow the Crime Victim's Reparations Board to withhold the name and file of a rape victim from the news media or any other interested party. According to section
In addition, section
"Except where any other statute expressly provides that particular information or records shall not be made public, public records shall include all records and documents, regardless of physical form, of or belonging to this state, any county, city, village, political subdivision, or tax-supported district in this state, or any agency, branch, department, board, bureau, commission, council, subunit, or committee of any of the foregoing. Data which is a public record in its original form shall remain a public record when maintained in computer files."
Since the Crime Victim's Reparations Board falls under the classification of a state board, all records maintained by the board become part of the public record, and as such, are available for inspection by any interested party. Although LB 86 does detail several exceptions to the public record requirement, the information compiled by the Crime Victim's Reparations Board cannot be classified under any of the stated exclusions.
Should the Crime Victim's Reparations Board attempt to withhold any records from public inspection, under
Should the Crime Victim's Reparations Board refuse any request by an individual to examine the records of the Board, a written description of contents of the records withheld and a statement of the specific reasons for the refusal must be provided to the individual requesting. In addition, the name of the public official or employee responsible for the decision to deny the request and notification of the individual's right of any administrative or judicial review must be provided to the requester. The Board must also maintain a file of all letters denying requests for records. Such file must be made available to any person upon request.