UK student newspaper sues university for public records related to assault in dorm
The Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky student newspaper, has filed a lawsuit against the university for declining to release records from the night a rape and strangulation in a dorm was reported.
Abbey Cutrer, the editor-in-chief of the Kernel, filed a public records request with UK on Oct. 2, “seeking records related to whether UK enforced its non-student guest policies” in dorms, according to the lawsuit.
The request was filed after a man, Chase McGuire, was arrested for the alleged rape and strangulation of a UK student in the Chellgren Hall dorm in September.
“The Kernel believes that transparency and truth are crucial to the well-being of students on our campus,” Cutrer told the Herald-Leader Tuesday.
“The records I requested pertain to a serious matter of student safety and it’s concerning that UK is using exemptions that don’t apply in order to withhold them, which is ultimately why we decided to file the lawsuit. UK is willfully violating the Open Records Act by refusing to produce vital public records about whether UK is enforcing its policies that are intended to protect its students from assaults like the one committed this September.”
McGuire is not a UK student, and Cutrer requested a record of all non-UK student guests who signed into Chellgren Hall the night of the crime. She also requested records documenting when McGuire signed into any dorm as a guest this school year.
The university declined to release the records, citing privacy as an exemption to the state open records law, and saying the records requested are considered “preliminary,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Fayette Circuit Court.
“Those who enter public buildings have no legitimate expectation of privacy; but even if they did, that right would clearly be outweighed by the public’s right to know whether UK enforced policies designed to keep students safe,” the lawsuit says. “Moreover, there is nothing ‘preliminary’ about the fact that a person visited UK dorm on a particular date.”
Whitney Siddiqi, UK spokesperson, said the university had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit on Tuesday morning, but “we are confident we followed the law and look forward to making our case.”
“As a state agency, the university follows the Kentucky Open Records Act in releasing public records,” Siddiqi said. “This includes exemptions for some records. For this specific request, a record created for an ongoing internal investigation, and which is being utilized for an ongoing internal investigation, is exempt as preliminary while the investigation is ongoing.”
Additionally, Siddiqi said the university believes names of guests in dorms are protected by the personal privacy exemption in the law.
“Our Open Records Office works diligently to provide records to the public while also protecting the privacy afforded to individuals under federal and state law,” Siddiqi said.
The Kernel and UK had a previous lawsuit related to public records in 2016, when student journalists requested investigation documents related to a former professor’s alleged sexual misconduct and the university refused to release them. The attorney general’s office found UK in violation of the open records law, and to appeal that decision, the university sued the Kernel.
In 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled that UK had violated the open records law and had to turn over the records.
“Our first obligation as journalists is to the truth and our loyalty is to the people. The students have a right to know if protocols are being followed in dorms, and I am determined to find the truth,” Cutrer said.
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 11:00 AM.