Jamee Lee Wade v. Bryan F. Taylor

Summary

The Idaho Supreme Court reviewed a public-records dispute involving Jamee Lee Wade’s request for investigatory records held by the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The court held that records under active prosecutorial review are active investigatory records, that the withholding agency must demonstrate a reasonable probability of a statutory harm from disclosure, and that the relevant time for evaluating the exemption is when disclosure was denied. The court vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings, including separation of exempt and nonexempt records.

Holdings

1. Investigatory records under ongoing, good-faith prosecutorial review are active investigatory records governed by Idaho Code section 9-335(1), even when the underlying police investigation has been completed.
2. The agency withholding records under Idaho Code section 9-335(1) bears the burden to demonstrate a reasonable probability that disclosure would result in at least one harm listed in section 9-335(1)(a)-(f).
3. The relevant time for determining whether refusal to disclose was justified is the time of the agency's denial of the public-records request, not the time of the district court hearing.
4. When a request includes both exempt and nonexempt records or material, the agency and the district court must separate the exempt material and make the nonexempt material available.
5. Whether a record is exempt is an objective inquiry that does not depend on the requester's motivation, and a court may not restrict use of nonexempt records to particular persons or purposes.
6. The appeal was not moot because the issue of attorney fees remained unresolved even though Wade obtained identical records through discovery in a separate federal action.
7. Idaho Code section 9-344(2) is the exclusive statutory basis for attorney fees in an action under the Idaho Public Records Act, and Wade was not entitled to fees on this appeal because he did not prevail.

Questions Presented

1. Whether investigatory records transferred to and under ongoing good-faith review by a prosecuting attorney are active investigatory records governed by Idaho Code section 9-335(1), rather than inactive records governed by section 9-335(3).
2. What burden the withholding agency must satisfy to establish that disclosure would produce one of the harms identified in Idaho Code section 9-335(1)(a)-(f).
3. Whether the relevant exemption inquiry is based on the circumstances existing when the agency denied the records request or when the district court later heard the petition.
4. Whether the district court must separate exempt from nonexempt portions of requested records.
5. Whether disclosure of nonexempt public records may be limited to particular persons or purposes based on the requester's motivation.
6. Whether the appeal was moot after Wade obtained the records through discovery in a separate federal action.
7. Whether the district court had authority during the appeal to amend the judgment concerning attorney fees.

Disposition

vacated