Victims’ parents accuse district, sheriff of concealing information in school shooting

Public agencies blamed for subverting democracy after Parkland tragedy

The parents of two children killed in February’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say public agencies are subverting democracy by stonewalling them in their search for public records related to the case.

The agencies, including prosecutors, the school district and the Sheriff’s Office, are engaging in “an intentional pattern of noncompliance” with the state’s broad public records law, according to a petition filed in the Broward Circuit Court this week.

The legal action was filed by the parents of students Meadow Pollack and Carmen Schentrup, who died in the shooting spree.

The school board, Sheriff ’s Office, State Attorney’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol have consistently and repeatedly blocked their efforts to obtain information, ignoring the public’s right to know that has been a part of state law since 1892, according

to the victims’ families.

“The demand for access to public records is an American principle dating back to the Colonial Era and was specifically enumerated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence,” their lawyers wrote.

The school district replied to one public records request for e-mail correspondence with a cost estimate of at least $4,300.

Another request, for meeting records and training exercise information, was rebuffed because the school district said it would expose security plans.

That was the same reasoning used by the Broward school district in opposing the South Florida Sun Sentinel and other media organizations seeking surveillance footage from outside the school during the Feb. 14 mass shooting, when former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 17 more.

A Broward judge, an appeals court and the Florida Supreme Court sided with the media in that case, ordering the release of footage that helped show how law enforcement and other emergency personnel responded to the scene.

The footage did not show Cruz or his victims — the media organizations never requested video from inside the school.

In a separate case, the school district requested that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer hold two Sun Sentinel reporters in contempt for publishing information about Cruz that the district released by mistake. The judge berated the Sun Sentinel and its attorney in a hearing Aug. 15, but she still has not ruled on the school district’s request.

The petition this week was filed by lawyer David Brill, representing Pollack’s parents, and Robert Stein, representing Schentrup’s.

“The respondent’s failure to provide access to the public records constitutes, in effect and as a matter of law … a violation of the Public Records Act, and demonstrates a likelihood of future violations,” attorneys for the families wrote.

Numerous families put the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the school board on notice in the weeks after the shooting, alerting the agencies that they intend to file liability lawsuits in connection with the shooting. Under state law, public agencies are entitled to six months’ notice before such lawsuits are filed.

While it has been more than six months, no lawsuits have been filed.

Joseph Rinaldi, Brill’s partner, said the search for records is connected with their preparation for their lawsuit.

“Some of these records are items we have been looking for since April,” he said.

Florida’s public records law allows public agencies to recoup the cost of producing the records — an extensive search of e-mails would require one or more staff members to review the information to determine whether releasing it would violate someone’s privacy rights. The longer it takes to review the records, the more the agencies will charge the person making the request.

Each of the agencies named in the petition has provided some, but not all, of the records requested by the families.

The Sheriff’s Office released 911 calls, omitting the identities of the callers. The petition seeks their disclosure.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said the agency has already publicly released some of the records sought by the Pollack and Schentrup families.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office released an edited version of a the statement made by Cruz to an investigator hours after the shooting. The victims’ families say they are entitled to the full statement because they are suing Cruz in civil court and the statement qualifies as an admission of liability.

Florida law allows for incriminating portions of the statement to be withheld until it is made public in a court hearing. State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Constance Simmons said the office is not permitted to release the full confession.

The families’ petition seeks a hearing, the requested records and a court order forcing the agencies to comply with the law.

Broward school officials could not be reached for comment because the district’s office were closed Wednesday in observance of Yom Kippur.

RAFAEL OLMEDA/SUN SENTINEL Families of two children killed in the Parkland school shooting are going to court over public records related to the shooting.