■ Clark County was ordered to pay $167,000 in legal fees after losing a records lawsuit.

County loses autopsy suit

Clark County will have to pay the Review-journal $167,000 in legal fees after losing a lawsuit over the release of child autopsies.

The newspaper had asked for approximately $210,000 as reimbursement for legal fees, but District Judge David Jones did not explain why he reduced the amount by $43,000 in his ruling Tuesday. The county had already spent close to $80,000 in taxpayers’ money on its outside counsel in the four-year fight.

Review-journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said the ruling helps promote open government.

“Clark County owes taxpayers an apology,” he said Wednesday. “The county willfully violated the law and embarked on years of legally baseless appeals, forcing the Review-journal to incur significant legal costs. Transparency is the law.”

Review-journal attorney Maggie Mcletchie said the award of fees is important to make sure government doesn’t improperly withhold public records in the future.

“The Review-journal fought hard to vindicate its rights under the public records act in court and finally obtained records that advance an important investigation after many years of delay by the Coroner’s

office,” she said. “To further access, the Nevada Public Records mandates that a prevailing requester is entitled to their fees and costs in the legal proceeding.”

The newspaper sought the records as part of an investigation into the county’s child protection division. But it took two Nevada Supreme Court orders for Clark County to release the 653 unredacted child autopsies to the Review-journal on New Year’s Eve 2020. The release came a day after the deadline set by District Judge Jim Crockett.

In July 2017, the Review-journal filed a lawsuit against the coroner’s office seeking the release of the autopsies. The county for years had taken the position that autopsy reports were confidential even though the documents are not specifically exempted in the Nevada Public Records Act.

In February 2020, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that autopsies are public record, but sent the case back to Crockett to determine whether any private medical information in the records needed to be redacted.

Clark County did not respond to a request for comment.