UK violated open records law on ESPN requests related to cheer team investigation, AG says
The University of Kentucky violated the state’s open records law when it denied an ESPN records request for employee expense reports related to UK’s investigation of its cheerleading team, the attorney general ruled Monday.
ESPN sent two requests for documents in early June, both dealing with the university’s cheer team. According to an opinion signed by Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Assistant Attorney General James Herrick, the first request asked for the expense reports of 12 university employees going back to July 2015. The second asked for the credit card statements from students who had been issued prepaid cards by the university.
The requests were made just two weeks after four coaches of the nationally recognized cheer team were fired after an internal university investigation found that some cheerleaders took part in hazing activities, alcohol use and public nudity on a team retreat and at a cheer camp in 2019. UK officials said the actions may have happened in previous years. Cheerleaders and the team’s fired head coach disagreed with the coach’s dismissal.
UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said the university is still reviewing the attorney general’s opinion to determine next steps. He said a high volume of requests plus the small staff dedicated to open records requests has slowed the university’s ability to fulfill requests.
Under Kentucky’s Open Records Act, members of the public can request records from state and local government agencies. Those records have to be handed over, unless the government agency can cite one of 14 exemptions in the law and reject a request. Rejected requests can be appealed to the attorney general, who can decide if a rejection is legal under the law.
When university officials made the hazing investigation public in May, they also announced that a separate investigation into potential financial conflicts of interest as some coaches employed members of the team in local gymnastics businesses. The university also investigated the team’s use of pre-loaded credit cards.
The cheer team began using pre-loaded credit cards for buying food during UK-authorized travel, a portion of the investigation into the team stated. Investigators did not find any wrongdoing related to the cards, but stated that coaching staff didn’t provide students enough guidance on what to use the cards for.
“They tell us it needs to be for food, I don’t really eat all that much so [it’s] Christmas money too,” one cheerleader told investigators.
The university rejected both of ESPN’s requests stating that it did not have the student credit card statements and that the employee expense reports were exempt from the records law because they were preliminary pieces of an ongoing internal investigation into the cheer team.
Under the law, preliminary drafts, notes, correspondence or recommendations are considered exempt. However, the university failed to prove that any of the expense reports were preliminary documents, the attorney general ruled.
“On appeal, the University does not explain why employee expense reports are purportedly drafts, notes, or correspondence with private individuals,” the ruling stated. “The University merely asserts that the expense reports are relevant to an ongoing internal investigation…”
Expense reports are made “in the ordinary course of business, not as part of an investigative process,” the ruling stated.
UK took about 12 days to respond to the request on pre-paid credit cards and nearly a month to respond to the request related to expense reports — beyond the open records law’s current 10-day deadline for responses, the attorney general’s opinion stated.
ESPN’s request was extensive, Blanton said, which can prolong the time the university takes in fulfilling the request.
“Moreover, we are dealing with a large volume of requests and a small staff with which to process and review them,” Blanton said of the UK’s open records office. “During COVID, such requests have taken longer as well as some staff have worked remotely. We have been trying to keep the reporter informed throughout the process as well.”
The requested expense reports will have to be turned over to ESPN unless the university decides to appeal the decision and sue the requester in court.
UK has sued media organizations in the past over open records disputes. A case against the Herald-Leader over records related to a $4 million payback to the federal government because of a cardiology clinic in Hazard was recently decided by the state Supreme Court in the Herald-Leaders’ favor. A separate case against the Kentucky Kernel, the university’s student newspaper, related to a sexual assault investigation into a professor, will be before the Supreme Court in October.
The attorney general’s ruling against UK comes just a few days after the United Campus Workers Kentucky — a union of university workers — wrote in a publicly published letter to the UK Board of Trustees that its records requests were long overdue.
The union asked for correspondences between the university and Greystar, UK’s dorm partner, related to UK’s reopening. Union members requested a meeting with the Board of Trustees and demanded an answer by Monday.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 4:08 PM.