Dive Summary:
- Louisiana District Judge Janice Clark ordered sheriff's deputies to seize records related to Louisiana State University's secret presidential search, which are at the center of a lawsuit between the university and The Advocate and The Times-Picayune newspapers.
- Clark became frustrated when the deputies returned without the public records, which the school says are held by Texas consulting firm R. William Funk & Associates; the judge has threatened to jail members of LSU's board for not complying with the two newspapers' records requests.
- The two newspapers filed suit in February after LSU's board denied a records request and the school has been fined $500 a day (now totaling around $60,000) since Clark's original April 30 order to turn the records over.
- After a long meeting Tuesday evening, Clark gave attorneys on both sides until Monday to reach an agreement that would see the records turned over.
From the article:
... Clark shot back that she did not care to hear anything further from Faircloth because she already had appointed the Sheriff’s Office — “in the place and stead of” the board — to seize the records because the board was either unable or unwilling to produce them.
“This court has given you from April 30 to today … to comply,” she told Faircloth.
The judge noted that the people of Louisiana “continue to be deprived of their right to know, their right to have access, their right to be informed.” ...