The attorney hired by the city of Marion following the raids on a Kansas newsroom has blocked access to records that should be publicly available under state law.
The KSHB 41 News I-Team requested former police chief Gideon Cody’s text messages, among other public officials in Marion.
In an email on Oct. 31, Jennifer Hill, an attorney hired by the city following the raids denied the request by writing: “The City has no custody over personal cell phones and KORA provides no enforcement mechanism to obtain text messages from personal cell phones. As such, obtaining text messages from the personal property of the listed individuals would place an unreasonable burden on the City and, to the extent any such records even exist, the City is under no obligation to produce such records.”
I’m not trying to reveal too much about myself here, but the mechanism in my area is the same as the mechanism for any government-owned devices.
The device is copied by a digital forensics expert. If the device is also the subject of a discovery request, it is retained until two years after litigation has completed.
The copied data is analyzed by a FOIA coordinator that gives all the relevant information to the person who initiated the FOIA request.
I advise people to never conduct work on personal devices because the policy we work under explicitly states that personal devices will be subject to legal holds and FOIA if used for official business.