Judge issues initial ruling against Douglas County School District and trustees

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - The four men who filed a lawsuit against the Douglas County School District and four of its trustees over a lack of fulfilling public records requests they filed are now entitled to recover expenses and attorney's fees. This is according to Judge Thomas Gregory of the Ninth Judicial District Court of Nevada.

Gregory's ruling came on October 10, 2024. The petitioners, Ricky Miller, Martin Swisher, Jr., Joseph Girdner, and Robbe Lehmann, filed a "Motion in Support of Attorney's Fees" on October 24. Judge Gregory gave them 14 days to file, and now the respondents, Douglas County School District, and trustees Susan Jansen, David Burns, Katherine Dickerson, and Doug Englekirk serve a responsive brief.

After the documents from the respondents are received, the petitioners have another seven days to respond.

Richard J. McGuffin, attorney for the petitioners said he will provide a statement after the matter is concluded.

There were public records requests served on the District on May 17 and July 26, 2023, for information on the Douglas County School District (DCSD) servers and on the personal electronic devices of the four trustees who were sued. DCSD and the trustees said they turned over everything but the petitioners sued on August 7, 2023, alleging not all of the information requested was turned over.

DCSD and the trustees adamantly said they turned over everything until the second witness testified in court during a trial on March 27, 2024. The district, trustees, and their legal counsel stopped the trial, stating they'd settle due to testimony that was produced showing not all records were turned over. A settlement could not be reached.

In July 2024, nearly a year after the public records requests, DCSD, and the trustees turned over 6,600 pages of public records from the district's servers and trustee's personal devices according to court documents.

In between the petitioner's public records requests, the four DCSD trustees involved approved the firing of the District's longtime counsel, Maupin, Cox & Legoy, and hired Joey Gilbert Law of Reno.

During the trial, former DCSD Superintendent Keith Lewis revealed there were a lot of missing documents from the public records requests that were on the DCSD servers and on the trustees' devices. Lewis said Gilbert had never given the request for documents. Gilbert provided affidavits for Lewis and the other four to sign, stating they turned over everything. Lewis read his completely and would not sign. The other four said they relied on counsel and didn't read.

"The in-court testimony regarding reliance on the advice of counsel was corroborated by consistent testimony of Trustees Jansen, Burns, Dickerson, and Englekirk regarding the affidavits of counsel, lack of training and understanding as to NPRA (Nevada Public Records Act) and complete reliance on counsel to search, determine what responsive and determine what was privileged. All testified that their attorney forwarded the affidavits without any explanation or discussion. All signed the affidavits without much thought or consideration. The testimony from Trustees is corroborated by similar testimony from former DCSD Superintendent Keith Lewis," states Judge Gregory on page 15 of the 41-page ruling.

"DCSD's and Trustees' conduct after being served with the lawsuit is also telling. Instead of quickly conducting supplemental searches to prove their claim that no further records existed, DCSD and Trustees doubled down and refused to conduct competent searches. Instead, DCSD and Trustees continued to maintain this position until after the second witness testified at trial. Even then, DCSD and Trustees inexplicably delayed conducting the searches for another couple of months," said Judge Gregory. "The court finds that the lawsuit caused a substantial change in DCSD's and Trustees' behavior in the manner sought by Petitioners."

The Judge also said the lawsuit was not frivolous and "DCSD and Trustees cannot blame Petitioners for the ensuing extraordinary delay in producing responsive public records."

NPRA requests must be answered within five days of the party receiving the request. Trustees missed several deadlines to produce court-requested documents and completed forms.

A final ruling will be issued by the judge after he receives all files from the involved parties.