Herald-Leader reporter Bill Estep’s work illuminated Kentucky’s dark corners | Opinion

In 2010, Bill Estep wrote: ”Kayden Branham, a toddler who died in 2009 after drinking drain cleaner, was at the Wayne County trailer where adults were using the chemical to make methamphetamine because there was no food, water or electricity where he’d been staying earlier, according to a state file.

”The 20-month-old boy and his 14-year-old mother, Alisha Branham, had been placed under the supervision of the state system for abused and neglected children before Kayden’s death, a circuit judge said in a previous ruling.”

Litigation soon grew out of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ refusal to release all the records relating to Kayden’s death.

“While it should go without saying,” Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd observed, “it perhaps must be spelled out in the context of this case: It is not unwarranted for the public, and the press, to want to know what happened when a 20-month-old child in the care and legal custody of the Commonwealth of Kentucky winds up dead after drinking toxic substances in a meth lab.”

The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Estep, along with Courier Journal reporter Deborah Yetter and Todd County Standard editor Ryan Craig, exposed this hidden crisis in Kentucky to the light of public scrutiny.

It was a crisis that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services was loath to acknowledge, much less address. Estep, like Yetter and Craig, confronted a wall of official silence and deception when the Cabinet refused to produce public records documenting understaffing and other problems that plagued the state agency charged with ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children under its supervision.

The Cabinet’s errors and omissions left Kentucky’s youngest and most vulnerable residents at grave risk.

The public outcry that resulted from Estep’s, Yetter’s, and Craig’s reporting was so overwhelming that even the most callous and insensitive lawmaker could ill-afford to ignore it. Legislation was enacted to extend existing protections for dependent, neglected, and abused children, at least one high ranking Cabinet official was fired, a fatality and near fatality review panel was established, and hefty penalties were imposed on the Cabinet by the courts.

On June 30, Estep is retiring after 40 years at the Herald-Leader, but with the promise he will return to freelance.

Although the child fatality crisis in Kentucky has not been entirely eliminated, neither the Cabinet nor any other official or agency, has since succeeded in sweeping these tragedies under the carpet — or even attempted to.

And it is to Bill Estep, Deborah Yetter, and Ryan Craig that we owe an enormous debt of gratitude.

From the perspective of one who closely follows developments in Kentucky’s open records laws, the period in which Estep, Yetter, and Craig — along with their newspapers — reported on the crisis, and the “culture of secrecy” which perpetuated the crisis, was the apex of public official (and public) understanding of the critical importance of records access as a corrective to bureaucratic inertia.

It was a repudiation of the notion that the open records law was “an obstacle to be circumvented rather than a law mandating compliance.”

It was also a reminder that: “The Open Records Act is neither an ideal nor a suggestion. It is the law. Public entities must permit inspection of public records as required or risk meaningful punishment for noncompliance. Rigid adherence to this stark principle is the lifeblood of a law which rightly favors disclosure, fosters transparency, and secures the public trust.”

Based on a handful of heavily redacted records reluctantly released by the Cabinet, Estep concluded his 2010 Herald-Leader story with this:

“Kayden died from respiratory failure caused by internal chemical burns and from ingesting the poison, according to the file.”

Six years later, he summarized Kaden’s story, the unduly lengthy legal battle for public records, and the contest over the appropriateness of the penalties imposed on the Cabinet: “The newspapers’ lawsuit was over open records, but [a children’s advocate] said he saw it as advocacy for children.“‘I’m happy that Kentucky kids have a really good shot at system improvement’ as a result,’ he said.”

Not every story Estep wrote resulted in a shift in bureaucratic culture or offered hope for meaningful change, but his steady hand, sharp focus, and ability to connect with his readers made Estep that most valuable thing — a solid public records reporter.

Let’s hope Bill doesn’t stay away long.

Amye Bensenhaver is the co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.