Steven A. James v. Office of the District Attorney - Plymouth District (SPR 20170542)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords April 21, 2017 SPR17/542 Steven A. James Dear Mr. James: I have received your petition appealing the response of the Office of the Plymouth District Attorney (Office) to your request for public records. The requirements for an appeal are as follows: Such appeal shall be in writing, and shall include a copy of the letter by which the request was made, and, if available, a copy of the letter by which the custodian responded. The Supervisor shall accept an appeal only from a person who had made his or her record request in writing. An oral request, while valid as a public record request pursuant to 950 C.M.R. 32.06(1)(a), may not be the basis of an appeal under 950 C.M.R. 32.08. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1)(g). Purpose of request Please note that the reason for which a requestor seeks access to or a copy of a public record does not afford any greater right of access to the requested information than other persons in the general public. The Public Records Law does not distinguish between requestors. Access to a record pursuant to the Public Records Law rests on the content of the record and not the circumstances of the requestor. See Bougas v. Chief of Police of Lexington, 371 Mass. 59, 64 (1976). Accordingly, your purpose in making the request has no bearing on the public status of any existing records. It should be noted that the discovery process and the Public Records Law are two distinct and independent avenues for gaining access to records. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held that while a party's access to records may be limited by the Public Records Law, this may not preclude obtaining the records through discovery. Commonwealth v. Wanis, 426 Mass. 639 (1998) See also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(l)(a) (the administrative appeal process "shall not apply to records in which an individual, or a representative of the individual, has a unique right of access to the record through statutory, regulatory, judicial or other applicable means"). As such, you may wish to consider another mans of seeking to obtain any existing responsive records. One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre • pre@sec.state.ma.us

Steven A. James SPRl 7/542 Page 2 April 21, 2016 Conclusion Given that a copy of your original response was not included in your petition, we are unable to assist you at this time. Please feel free to re-submit your appeal when you have retrieved copies of all the required documents. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Keith A. Garland, Esq.