SPRINGDALE -- The city declined Thursday to release a recording of a May 27 emergency call involving the Jim Bob Duggar family, despite a judge's determination Tuesday that the recording is not exempted from public release by court order.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the 911 call recording on June 10. A copy of the 911 call was obtained by In Touch magazine of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., through an earlier FOI request by the magazine.
Later requests from the newspaper also asked for copies of letters exchanged by the Washington County juvenile judge and Springdale city attorney Ernest Cate on matters involving the Duggars.
In Touch's account of the recording says the caller identified himself as a Washington County case worker for the state Department of Human Services. He was quoted as giving the Duggars' address and saying: "We have an investigation, and I guess they're not being cooperative. We have to see the child to make sure the child is all right. So we just need police assistance."
The Duggars were stars of the now-canceled 19 Kids and Counting television show. The TLC cable network canceled the show after learning that oldest child, Josh Duggar, had fondled four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier.
Attorneys for Springdale denied the newspaper's FOI request in June, while requesting a court ruling. The city cited court orders by Washington County Circuit Judge Stacey Zimmerman. Those orders forbade release of records arising from the investigation into Josh Duggar's conduct while he was a teenager and ordered the destruction of a police report on the matter.
Attorneys for the city requested a ruling from Zimmerman on whether the 911 recording was subject to FOI in light of those orders. On Tuesday, Zimmerman said she had no authority to issue an "advisory" ruling on whether the requested records had to be released under Arkansas law. She declared the documents are outside the scope of any orders she issued related to a 2007 Families in Need of Services case involving the Duggar family.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette repeated its request for the 911 recording and filed a second request for the other records Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday, attorney Susan Keller Kendall replied on behalf of the city in a letter.
The letter acknowledged "Judge Zimmerman ruled that the call does not fall under the protection of her court orders." The letter also said, however, that Zimmerman's comments from the bench indicated the 911 call was exempt under provisions of Arkansas law and the city is obtaining a transcript of the proceedings to back up that interpretation.
The city also declined to release the correspondence between Zimmerman and the city, saying it appeared to relate to the 2007 case and was covered by the judge's previous order.
Brandon Cate, attorney for the newspaper, said the 911 recording and other records requested by the newspaper are public records and there was no dispute of that until Zimmerman issued court orders in the 2007 case. Those court orders are now acknowledged to be irrelevant to this FOI request, he said.
"Despite Judge Zimmerman ruling that she did not have jurisdiction to address whether the city of Springdale's records related to the 911 call are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, and her declining to issue an advisory opinion on that issue, the city continues to rely on statements from Judge Zimmerman to justify its refusal to produce the records," Brandon Cate said.
"The records are not exempt from disclosure and should be produced by the city forthwith. The newspaper is considering its options, including whether it will be forced to file a lawsuit directly against the city, as permitted by the Freedom of Information Act."
NW News on 08/21/2015