News organization drops lawsuit after City of Lake Charles turns over additional emails

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - A statewide news organization has agreed to drop a lawsuit demanding that the City of Lake Charles release certain emails.

The Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic filed the suit on behalf of the nonprofit website Louisiana Illuminator in October after the city refused to turn over hundreds of emails to fulfill a public records request.

In May, journalist Natalie McLendon requested all communications to and from Mayor Nic Hunter from April 10 through 12. The city sent over 1,168 pages of emails from those dates but said the remaining 298 pages were exempt from public record because they fell under attorney-client privilege.

The lawsuit asked for more explanation of why those emails were exempt, stating that the city “did not attempt to redact or segregate any non-exempt information and instead relied upon a blanket exemption for hundreds of pages.”

City Attorney David Morgan said the emails not sent to the Illuminator consisted of the mayor’s personal communications and communications with city attorneys.

Last month 14th Judicial District Judge Kendrick Guidry ruled that the city had to turn over a dozen additional emails but agreed that the rest were exempt from public record, Mayor Hunter said.

While Mayor Hunter considers the ruling “favorable” for the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana Illuminator Editor Greg LaRose called it a win for the news outlet.

“It’s a big win for us, for the First Amendment and for all journalists,” LaRose said.

He said the judge ruled that the attorney-client privilege exemption only applied to a “small minority” of the records requested. Once the city provided the additional emails, LaRose said the Illuminator was satisfied and agreed to a joint dismissal.

Hunter said the case was dismissed today with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.

In the lawsuit, the Illuminator also accused Morgan of violating state law because he was 11 days late to tell McLendon that certain records would be exempt.

Louisiana law requires that public records requests receive a response within five days acknowledging that the request is being fulfilled or explaining why it cannot be fulfilled.

McLendon filed the request on May 13, and Morgan said on May 21 that he would begin reviewing the 1,466 pages of communications. On May 27, he told her that he had completed his review and found 1,168 documents meeting her request without explanation of why some were being withheld, according to the Illuminator.

Hunter said a city representative called McLendon the same day she submitted her request and told her that fulfilling her request would take a long time. McLendon said she was not able to narrow down her request.

Hunter said he stands by the city’s response and believes they fulfilled the request in a timely manner considering its scope.

The lawsuit also addressed the cost of fulfilling a public records request. The city had an old policy on its website that has since been corrected.

At the time of McLendon’s request, the city’s website listed the price as 50 cents per page for the first 50 pages and 25 cents for each additional page, plus $25 per DVD for digital copies.

McLendon only requested a paper copy of the records to avoid paying the extra amount for a digital copy. She paid $305 for 1,168 printed pages.

Hunter said the city no longer charges per page for digital copies, and the website has been updated with the correct price of $25 per DVD and $35 per jump drive.

Mayor Hunter said he has “no clue” what McLendon was searching for in her request.

“The case was absolutely about nothing when it was filed, and it is absolutely about nothing today,” Hunter said.

Hunter said the city has a good relationship with the media and accepts over 1,000 public records requests a year. This is the first time in his seven years as mayor that the media has filed a lawsuit over the city’s response to a records request.

“It was a very frustrating ordeal,” Hunter said. “I’m glad it’s over.”