By Joel Thurtell
The Detroit branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has asked Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett to explain how the public can have access to files of the Wayne County Circuit Court.
The court has been operating without public access to its records since lightning sparked a transformer fire June 27 in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center where the files were stored. Apparently, there was water damage to the files.
I reported the situation to the ACLU of Michigan early in July after I was denied access to a file I needed to report an article I hoped to write about Detroit’s scandal du jour, Kwamegate.
Detroit ACLU director Karie Moss phoned me August 13, 2008 to let me know an ACLU attorney would be looking into the situation.
Moss told me the ACLU will pursue the issue “up the food chain.”
ACLU cooperating attorney Susan Kornfield of Ann Arbor sent a letter Friday, August 22, asking Clerk Garrett to explain the closing of the files.
In her letter, Kornfield wrote, “I understand that, as a result of storm damage incurred on June 27, 2008, a decision was made to move court records from the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center to an undisclosed location. We know of several individuals who have sought access to public records in the possession, custody, or control of the Court and who have been advised that the records are unavailable. Despite requests for more information, they were not advised as to any method by which they could access those records.”
“As you are aware,” Kornfield continued, “Court documents are a matter of public record and are to be made available to the public for inspection and copying purposes. Given the current situation as to the relocation of the files, could you kindly respond as to how the public can access these records?”
I reported the situation in three columns on joelontheroad.com: “Open the records!” on July 7, “No files? It’s circus court” on July 13 and “Freedom of information, except…” on July 14.
Moving the files and locking the file room raised no alarms among Detroit area newspapers. That was odd, since both Detroit dailies — the Free Press and the News — had lawyers and reporters working in Wayne Circuit Court to open more text messages to the public with their Freedom of Information lawsuit. When I made a second trip to Detroit to read the file of the newspapers’ Freedom of Information case, I was told again that there’s no public access to the files. I went home without seeing the record of a case that is all about government openness and transparency.
I have additional questions for Clerk Garrett.
First, in a democracy dedicated to open and transparent government, how do you run any court, let alone the state’s busiest county judicial system, without public access to records?
Furthermore, I’d like to know what the clerk has been doing with the files while they’ve been held in that undisclosed place.
Wayne’s dungeon-like basement file room was already a disaster. Ask anybody who ever tried to seek or read a file in that dingy, dark pit.
A disaster waiting for a disaster.
Although state historians had warned county record-keepers to take precautions in protecting vital court records post-Katrina, apparently Wayne County’s measures — if they existed — weren’t enough to ensure safety for the court files.
It would be interesting to know what kind of protection Wayne County plans for its files once they are returned to their subterranean dwelling place.
If court officials drop the files into the same old hell-hole, disaster will simply be waiting to happen again.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell)at)gmail.com
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