UK broke law in open records case against student newspaper, court rules
The Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled that the University of Kentucky failed to follow the state's Open Records Act with regard to documents its own student newspaper requested about an investigation of possible sexual misconduct by an ex-professor.
In 2016, UK sued its campus newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, which sought records related to associate professor of entomology James Harwood, whom the university investigated after two students accused him of serious misconduct. (Harwood denied the accusation but resigned as part of a settlement agreement with UK.)
UK withheld certain records from the Kernel and filed a lawsuit after Attorney General Andy Beshear determined that the university had violated the open records law. (UK could appeal Beshear's decision but couldn't legally name him as a party in the lawsuit.)
The Kernel already published details from the records the university has refused to hand over, which another source gave the newspaper. The Kernel reported that Harwood was accused of both sexual assault and sexual harassment but did not identify the students who came forward with those allegations.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/17/court-university-kentucky-broke-law-open-records-case-against-kentucky-kernel/3705792002/
