NM judge sides with newspaper in records dispute

A state district judge has ruled against the city of Rio Rancho and in favor of The Santa Fe New Mexican and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government in a legal dispute over public records, saying reasons the city gave for withholding records pertaining to the December shooting death of a Santa Fe police officer's child were invalid.

The records at the center of the case involved the December death of the 2-year-old son of Santa Fe Police Department officer Jonathan Harmon.

An investigation revealed 2-year-old Lincoln Harmon had been struck by a bullet that came from his father's gun, which discharged while being wielded by the child's 4-year-old brother.

Initial incident reports and 911 calls routinely are released as public records in cases that don't involve police officers. But the city of Rio Rancho refused to produce the call and other records in response to requests from The New Mexican, the foundation and other media outlets, citing state Children's Code protections usually used to prevent the release of information by the state Children, Youth and Families Department in abuse, neglect and delinquency cases.

The New Mexican and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government filed a lawsuit in March after the city continued to refuse to produce the records despite an Attorney General's Office opinion — issued in response to a complaint filed by KOAT-TV — stating the records were public and the city had violated the law by not producing them.

"Neither of the two Children's Code provisions that [the city] cited as their sole grounds for denying the ... requests under the Inspection of Public Records Act authorizes a law enforcement agency to withhold its own investigative reports or 911 recordings from public inspection," Judge James A. Noel wrote in a ruling earlier this month that granted the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgement.

In addition to ordering the city to produce the records, the judge ordered Rio Rancho to pay "reasonable attorney's fees and costs" associated with the lawsuit, estimated by plaintiffs attorney Kip Purcell to be about $40,000.

"It's an important decision, because it makes clear that the confidentiality required by the Children's Code applies only to the Children, Youth & Families Department's file," Purcell wrote in an email Friday. "Documents generated by law enforcement agencies are subject to public inspection in the files of those agencies, even if CYFD has obtained copies of them."

"We had always disagreed with the city of Rio Rancho's position on this matter and are gratified by the court's decision," Santa Fe New Mexican editor Phill Casaus said.

Foundation for Open Government interim executive director Melanie Majors said the organization was "puzzled by why the city of Rio Rancho felt the records in question were not considered public records, but we were very pleased that the judge made the determination that he did."

In response to a request for comment Friday, Rio Rancho Deputy City Manager Peter Wells referred a reporter to a paragraph in a March news release which states:

"In the event that a court rules that the requested records and information are releasable to the general public, which includes media entities, the City will not only comply with the court order and rule of law, but also continue to work with legislators in order to update and modernize IPRA and other sections of New Mexico law."