N-M claims county breaking public records law

FREMONT – Attorneys for The News-Messenger sent a second letter to the office of Sandusky County Prosecutor Tom Stierwalt on Tuesday demanding the county immediately comply with state public records law.

The newspaper has been seeking to view the preliminary autopsy report for homicide victim Heather Bogle since mid-June. Stierwalt and Assistant Prosecutor Norm Solze have failed to respond to a June 25 letter from The News-Messenger’s attorney.

The News-Messenger does not know whether it would publish any information from the autopsy report, but it seeks to review the file as part of routine coverage of this high-interest story, Editor David Yonke said. The coroner’s officer previously allowed The News-Messenger to review an autopsy in a 2010 case.

Section 313.10 of Ohio Revised Code states that the media may view preliminary autopsy reports and notes, said Bill Kolis, The News-Messenger’s attorney.

“Ohio law clearly gives us the right to review these public documents,” Kolis said. “Sandusky County has failed to properly explain why it’s withholding any information in violation of the law despite its previous compliance in 2010.”

Solze did respond to The News-Messenger’s initial request, stating in a June 16 email that the autopsy was a “specific investigatory work product” and would not be released.

But Kolis, in his June 25 letter, said Solze was mistaken and relying on a court decision issued about 25 years before the current law covering coroners was adopted.

“As a general rule, the records of a coroner including the detailed descriptions of observations written during an autopsy, in the first instance, are ‘public records,’ ” Kolis wrote.

He later added: “Not every specific test nor the results thereof are automatically exempt from disclosure under Section 149.43. Indeed, to qualify as such the release of the records must present a ‘high probability of the disclosure of a specific confidential investigatory techniques or procedures or specific investigatory work product.’ ”

The county has not responded to the June 25 letter.

Sandusky County Coroner John Wukie did verbally tell a reporter that Bogle, 28, of Ballville Township, was shot twice in the back and showed signs of blunt force trauma on her body.

“The report (from the Lucas County Coroner’s Office) showed signs of recent use of marijuana. No reported amount,” he said on June 10.

Contacted last week for an update on the case, Wukie hung up on a News-Messenger reporter.