Supreme Court Declines To Lift Stay On Release Of Former County Employee's E-mail
Last updated Wednesday, August 22, 2007 6:37 PM CDT in News
By John Lyon
THE MORNING NEWS
LITTLE ROCK -- In a split decision, the state Supreme Court declined Wednesday to lift a stay on a circuit judge's order Pulaski County release the e-mail of a former employee charged with stealing from the county.
In a per curiam order, the court denied a motion that would have cleared the way for release of the e-mail of former Pulaski County Comptroller Ron Quillin. A dissenting justice said the order would unnecessarily delay the release of public records.
Quillin resigned his county job April 30 and was serving as chief financial officer for the state Division of Medical Services when he was arrested June 4. He faces 16 counts of felony theft of property, two felony counts of forgery and one misdemeanor count of abuse of office.
Quillin was fired from his state job June 11.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is suing the county for release of e-mail between Quillin and a female employee of the county's financial software provider, e-Management Solutions. The woman is referred to in court records as "Jane Doe" to conceal her identity.
In June, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan ordered the county to release the e-mail. The county appealed the case to the state Supreme Court, which ordered McGowan to review the e-mail and determine whether any were purely personal in nature and not subject to the state Freedom of Information Act.
McGowan ruled Aug. 2 that only a few of the e-mail were exempt from the FOIA, and she ordered the county to release more than 600 e-mail she determined were public records.
The following day, McGowan granted the county's request to stay her order, pending further appeal.
The newspaper petitioned the high court to lift the stay, expedite the proceedings and clarify whether the county's original appeal to the Supreme Court was still active.
In a 4-3 decision Wednesday, the high court granted the motion to expedite, clarified the appeal is still pending and denied the motion to lift the stay. The court also directed the attorneys to file new briefs in the case.
Justices Tom Glaze, Annabelle Clinton Imber and Paul Danielson dissented, as they did when the court ruled in July that McGowan should review the e-mail individually.
"Pulaski County and Jane Doe continue to disagree with the outcome of the circuit court's latest ... order, and they seek a new appeal, which in my view serves only to prolong this case -- a problem I predicted in my dissent to this court's July 20, 2007, majority opinion," Glaze wrote in a dissenting opinion Wednesday.
Glaze wrote in July the majority's ruling would weaken the FOIA by lengthening the process and increasing the expense for citizens to obtain public records.
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