Martin v. Musteen, 90-126

• Decision Date: 19 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. 90-126,90-126
• Parties: John Lee MARTIN, Jr., Appellant, v. Dennis MUSTEEN, City of Rogers, and David S. Clinger, Appellees.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 540

799 S.W.2d 540

303 Ark. 656

John Lee MARTIN, Jr., Appellant, v. Dennis MUSTEEN, City of Rogers, and David S. Clinger, Appellees.

No. 90-126.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Nov. 19, 1990.

Doug Norwood, Rogers, for appellant.

David Clinger, Bentonville, for appellees.

NEWBERN, Justice.

This is an appeal from denial of information sought pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Ark.Code Ann. §§ 25-19-101 through 25- 19-107 (1987 and Supp.1989). William Leon Pinson was charged with manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance as well as possession of drug paraphernalia. His lawyer, John Lee Martin, Jr., the appellant, sought from appellee Dennis Musteen, who is the Chief of Police of Rogers, Arkansas, the police investigation file with respect to the charges against Pinson. Chief Musteen consulted with appellee David S. Clinger, the prosecutor of the 19th Judicial District, who advised that the file need not be released to Martin. Mr. Martin then brought this action pursuant to the act. Mr. Clinger intervened on the side of Chief Musteen and the City of Rogers. The circuit court ruled that the information need not be released until Pinson was tried or a decision had been made not to try him. The result reached was correct, and we affirm.

We have no doubt that the information sought constituted "public records" as defined in § 25-19-103(1). According to § 25-19-105(a), all public records are open to public inspection by any Arkansas citizen during regular business hours of the custodian of the records. Section 25-19-105(b), however, lists the exemptions, one of which, found in § 25-19-105(b)(6), is "[u]ndisclosed investigations by law enforcement agencies of suspected criminal activity."

The circuit court held a hearing at which Chief Musteen testified and referred to the investigation as an "ongoing" one. He said he would be guided in any felony investigation case by the advice of Mr. Clinger. Mr. Clinger testified that Pinson's case was part of a larger investigation involving a great deal of information about other persons allegedly involved with Pinson in trafficking in drugs and that the investigations of those persons would continue for some time before the police stop the active investigation.

For his contention that the police file in this case does not fall within that exemption, Martin cites two of our recent cases. The first is City of Fayetteville v. Rose, 294 Ark. 468, 743 S.W.2d 817 (1988), in which we held that information contained in investigations conducted by the City of Fayetteville police and fire departments were not undisclosed and thus not exempt from release. The police and fire departments had finished their investigations. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms had also investigated, and Rose had been indicted by a federal grand jury. We wrote:

There was no "undisclosed investigation." Everyone knew about it. The Fire and Police Departments of Fayetteville had finished their investigation. The [BATF] had investigated the matter, turned its report over to the U.S. attorney's office, and a federal grand jury had returned an indictment. No reading of the Freedom of Information Act consistent with our decisions could support a finding that there was an "undisclosed investigation" involved. Therefore, the records held by the fire and police departments are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

Discussing the City of Fayetteville case, Professor John J. Watkins noted that, if taken literally, the language quoted would be a proper basis for the fears of the justices who dissented in the case that law enforcement efforts would be severely hampered if the file of any police investigation could be obtained pursuant to the FOIA just on the basis of public awareness. He alludes to an alternative interpretation of the quoted language to the effect that any completed investigation is subject to disclosure. Professor Watkins points out that neither public awareness nor the alternative interpretation should be the criterion applied to determine whether an investigation has been "disclosed," but the test should be based on a criterion more in line with the purposes of the FOIA.

This approach would require a case-by-case evaluation of the effect of disclosure in light of the purposes of the law enforcement exemption. For example, if the only danger apparent from release of certain records is interference with an investigation or contemplated enforcement proceedings, the exemption is inapplicable if the investigation has been completed and no further proceedings are contemplated. As one court has observed, there is in such circumstances "no reason to protect yellowing documents contained in long-closed files." On the other hand, if release of records in a "closed" case would reveal the identity of a confidential informant, an undercover police officer or even the name of a citizen interviewed during an investigation, the exemption should apply and the material should be withheld. Of course, if the name of the individual can be deleted from the records, the remainder of the material is subject to disclosure until another reason for secrecy is present. [J. Watkins, The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, 70-71 (m & m Press, 1988).]

The other case cited by Mr. Martin is McCambridge v. City of Little Rock, 298 Ark. 219, 766 S.W.2d 909 (1989). There we held that photographs of a crime scene and a pathologist's photograph made in connection with a police investigation were to be released in accordance with the act, citing the City of Fayetteville case. We also held that the police file in the McCambridge case was subject to release under the act despite the fact that it allegedly contained statements from confidential informants. We noted the argument made in that case by the Little Rock Police Department to the effect that requiring the release of the file would detract from effective law enforcement and thus be detrimental to the public interest. We referred that argument to the general assembly.

The court's opinion in the McCambridge case closed, however, with this language:

The only purpose of the exemption, as written, is to prevent interference with ongoing investigations. When a case is closed by administrative action, as this one was, the reason for the exemption no longer exists, and the trial court correctly ordered the statements released. Accordingly, we affirm the ruling of the trial court that the police reports are to be released.

The City of Fayetteville and McCambridge cases have in common the fact that the investigation files sought to be released had to do with completed police investigations. In the language quoted above from our opinion in the McCambridge case, we recognized that the statutory exemption of "undisclosed investigations" had as its purpose the protection of "ongoing investigations" like the one in this case.

While the...