FAYETTEVILLE -- Records related to a 911 call from the Jim Bob Duggar residence and letters from a judge to Springdale city officials aren't subject to release under a Freedom of Information Act, according to a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a "Jane Doe" minor.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sued Sept. 3 in Washington County Circuit Court after Springdale officials refused requests for the documents. They include the recording of the 911 call and supporting documents from May 27 and correspondence between Circuit Judge Stacey Zimmerman and Ernest Cate, Springdale city attorney.
911 Call
An account of the 911 recording sought by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and previously released to In Touch magazine has a caller identifying himself as a Washington County case worker for the state Department of Human Services and giving the address of the Jim Bob Duggar family.
“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 account says.
Source: Staff Report
The 911 recording has already been released to the public. The newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request for it on June 10. A copy of the call was obtained by In Touch magazine of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., through an earlier Freedom of Information Act request.
Turning over the documents could improperly identify the minor female he represents, Bud Cummins, a Little Rock attorney, contends in a "Jane Doe" motion to intervene. Supporting documents go on to argue Department of Human Services and Arkansas State Police investigations into allegations of child maltreatment are specifically exempted from disclosure under the FOIA and 911 calls involving child welfare concerns are exempt under the state's child maltreament law.
Cummins was contacted Thursday and declined comment, citing the privacy concerns of his client.
The newspaper argues the city has "already rung the proverbial bell" by previously releasing the information to the magazine and, further, the recording wasn't created, collected or compiled on behalf of Human Services or the state police. The recording is part of the city's administrative function of providing 911 services to the public, the newspaper says.
The newspaper's FOIA lawsuit is assigned to Circuit Judge Beth Storey Bryan and she hasn't yet set a time to hear it.
"I do not believe that the intervention is warranted," said Brandon Cate, an attorney for the newspaper. "We do not seek juvenile court records. We seek public records held by the city of Springdale."
The 911 call came into Springdale's 911 system, which was the closest service available. It was then transferred to Washington County, which, in turn dispatched Tontitown police to assist.
The motion to intervene argues the letters from Zimmerman, Washington County's Juvenile Court judge, to Springdale officials could relate to a juvenile case or investigation and would, therefore, not be subject to release under the FOIA.
"If it is not part of a juvenile proceeding but substantively contains identifying information referencing a specific juvenile or juvenile investigation, that information should be sealed or redacted sufficiently to remove any fact that would point to a particular juvenile or minor," the motion goes on to say.
The letters addressed the release of a certain police report and inquired as to the city's policy on the release of police reports in the future, according to one of the city's responses to FOIA requests.
The city acknowledged it had the letters, but declined to release them, saying they appear to relate to a 2007 juvenile case involving the Duggars and are covered by a previous Zimmerman order. The letters were sent May 27 and June 11 and specifically referenced the Duggar juvenile case by case number, according to the city's response to the newspaper.
The newspaper contends the letters aren't juvenile court records and should be subject to release.
"We understand the records in the juvenile court's case file are exempt from disclosure. We are not pursuing records that are a part of the juvenile case," said Rusty Turner, editor of the newspaper. "We are asking for records that were previously released to another party. We also want to see documents that may form a basis for why the city of Springdale changed course and stopped releasing records it previously considered disclosable."
The letters were sent from Zimmerman to Springdale at a time when the city wasn't a party to the juvenile court action involving the Duggars, according to the lawsuit.
"Even if the letters were confidential juvenile court records at some point in time, they ceased to be confidential when they were sent to a nonparty to the juvenile action," according to the newspaper's lawsuit.
The Duggars were stars of the 19 Kids and Counting television show. The TLC cable network canceled the show after learning the oldest child, Josh Duggar, fondled four of his sisters and a babysitter when he was a teen.
Josh Duggar resigned his position as a lobbyist with the conservative Family Research Council after the admissions. More recently, he admitted being unfaithful to his wife and entered a rehab program after it was revealed he had accounts with an infidelity website that was hacked.
NW News on 09/11/2015