Re: L&I Juvenile Records (was biased)

[Jackie Fellows]

Jackie Fellows <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:


Hi Doc

Here is the story and I think it is credible as it came from the woman at the tv
station and the country sheriff besides what was on the tv yesterday.

The tv station wanted the sheriff's office to run a check on the father (I
imagine criminal check).  The only think that came up was the preadjudication
record of Mitchell (the 13 year old).  Mitchell has been to court twice, and was
due to appear again in June.  The sheriff refused to release the info. because
it was a juvenile.  The station then went to the county attorney (I guess he is
a winner) and he called the sheriff and told him to release the document after
making sure the names and birthdates were blacked out.  This is what was seen on
the television.  However, any idiot IMO would be able to find out those little
details because Grand Meadow is a very small town (not too many sexual crimes
occur there) and the record turned up as a result of probing the dad's
background.  In addition, the case number etc. were still visible on the
document.  All the tv station had to do was ask people in the town after that
about the incident.  When Tom (my colleague) was asked to talk about the case on
tv he was unaware they had this info.  However, the grandfather immediately
thought Tom had released the info. and called him and others about these "leak
of juvenile records."  When the judge appeared on tv, he explained this was a
gray area in the data privacy act, but that new rules were being put into place
about the release of preadjudication records.  The controversy now is not the
record, per se, that violated the data privacy act because the names were not
visible, but the context in which the record was obtained destroyed any
confidentiality of the record.  (Is that clear or muddy, you kow me).  My
understanding is that the grandfather was talking lawsuit at one time--don't
know if that still is his thought.  In our less-than the current newspaper, they
did report that someone had spoken to the aunt after getting the records and she
verified the story.   The station did one of those random (?) surveys of people
in the mall (very scientific, right) and asked if they thought the records
should have been released.  Some of the remarks by the respondents were like
this one:  "if a juvenile commits an horrendous act and is picked up, then
his/her past record should be released so that the individual doesn't commit
anymore crimes."  Or this one:  "if the individual has done a terrible crime,
the past record should be publicised so he/she is too embarrassed to do it
again."  I think I know what they meant, but I felt it was a little late to
embarrass Mitchell or to prevent him from committing another horrendous act
simply by releasing this preadjudication record.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, in rural MN there seems to be an effort to be
quiet about these things so they will go away.  I do know the sheriff was upset
about having to release the records and told the county attorney it was his a$$
if there was problems occurring from this.

jackief



DocCec wrote:

> DocCec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> In a message dated 98-04-03 17:19:50 EST, you write:
>
> << It appears that we have a local controversy regarding
>  whether the making public of preadjudication records of a juvenile are
>  against the law.  The judge was on this morning discussing this because of
>  the release of juvenile records to the local tv station that they traced to
>  Mitchell, the 13 year old in Arkansas. I was sort of waiting for this to
>  happen as this has been discussed among some of us since the story broke on
>  tv.  Don't know if any other area has heard about this.
>
>  jackief >>
>
> I wondered about that when we started hearing/reading all the background on
> him, but thought perhaps different states had different laws.  Who released
> the records, do you know, and did they just give them to the tv station or
> what?
> Doc
>
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