Visiting District Court Judge Rodney Satterwhite Friday dismissed the Odessa American’s lawsuit against the City of Odessa, a decision the newspaper’s attorneys said they will urge the OA to appeal to the Eastland Court of Appeals.
The Odessa American filed a lawsuit in June 2020 arguing the city has violated the Texas Freedom of Information Act by delaying and/or redacting police reports and other documents related to criminal justice matters.
OA Publisher Patrick Canty said regardless of the latest ruling that he believes the case law is firmly “on our side and what the ruling does if this stands is it makes a critical part of Texas open record laws worthless to not just the news media but every citizen in the state of Texas.”
He said it would mean that any government agency could “stonewall and censor information that has always been public.”
On Jan. 31, attorneys on both sides spent two hours in the 161st State District Court in Odessa arguing over the matter, with both sides asking for the judge to render a summary judgment rather than allowing the case to proceed to a jury trial in the future.
The newspaper’s attorneys, Jeff Nobles and John Bussian, told Satterwhite that under Texas law the city has a duty to turn over basic information, such as the names of suspects, crime locations and the nature of the crime, immediately. They said the city only had the right to delay information if they were seeking advice from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and that information was beyond basic.
Nobles noted the city has delayed releasing basic information on numerous occasions. Following the 2019 mass shooting, the city waited 116 days to release basic information and it waited 92 days in the Fabian Polvon double homicide case.
Hal Brockett Jr., who represents the City of Odessa, told the judge the city did not violate the law because the city simply has an obligation to reply “as soon as possible, under the circumstances.” He and attorney Keith Stretcher further argued all of the information requested by the newspaper has been turned over, rendering the entire case “moot” and asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed as a result.
Satterwhite agreed with the city’s attorneys and he also ruled the City of Odessa does not have to pay the newspaper’s attorneys fees.
“I’m happy for the City of Odessa. I’m ecstatic for our legal team, especially our city attorney, who was very scrutinized. There was criticism saying that she didn’t understand the Public Information Act, she didn’t understand the law and that she was incorrect,” Mayor Javier Joven said.
Nobles said the newspaper will likely file an appeal. Nobles maintains that it doesn’t matter that the city eventually provided the information. He believes the judge needed to legally recognize the difference between “basic” information that must be released immediately and other sorts of information that can be released at a later time. Without that ruling, he said the City of Odessa can and will continue to provide information on their timeline.
He also said the paper has First Amendment grounds to appeal.
