The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the use of force by Cincinnati police officers was a public record and should not have been kept secret, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a 5-1 decision, the court ruled in favor of The Cincinnati Enquirer, which sued the city in March to enforce the Ohio Public Records Act. The Enquirer sought a copy of the draft agreement; the final settlement was released in April.

John C. Greiner, the Enquirer's lawyer, said the decision reaffirms the principle that settlement agreements - even in the draft stage - are public records.

"We had always felt that it's important to know how the city arrives at decisions, including a settlement decision," said Mr. Greiner. "To see drafts is the only way to see how they arrived at a decision. That's the only way to see whether the city got the best deal it could have."

The city had claimed the documents were not public records because they were protected by attorney-client privilege and that it was a confidential law enforcement investigatory record. The city also said the records were sealed under an order by U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott, who had jurisdiction over a separate but related civil rights lawsuit.

The Supreme Court noted that the city released copies of the draft agreement to parties in that lawsuit, and so should have released it to the public as well. The court ruled the Enquirer "established a sufficient public benefit" to the release of the records.

"The proposed settlement of the DOJ's investigation into the practices and policies of the Cincinnati Police Department was a matter of great public interest. the Enquirer's access to the requested record would enable it to provide complete and accurate news to the public," the majority said.

The decision overturned a previous ruling by the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals that the records were not public. The court also ordered the city to pay the Enquirer's legal fees.

In a dissent, Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton agreed the document was a public record, but said the lawsuit became moot when the city and the Justice Department reached the final agreement.

Attorney General John Ashcroft signed the agreement in Cincinnati on April 12, one year after Mayor Charlie Luken called for the federal investigation in the aftermath of rioting over a police shooting in Over-the-Rhine.

Justice Andrew Douglas, who had sought a job as monitor overseeing the city's compliance with the Justice Department agreement, did not participate in the court's decision.