Steven A. James v. Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (SPR 20170990)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords August 2, 2017 SPR17/990 Steven A. James Dear Mr. James: I have received the petition concerning your request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, you requested records from the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office (DAO). On May 5, 2017, the DAO issued a response regarding the applicability of the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Act. It appears you subsequently petitioned to the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) seeking access to these records. You wrote to this office on July 18, 2017 seeking guidance and direction regarding this matter. 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 requester. See Bougas v. Chief of Police of Lexington, 3 71 Mass. 59, 64 (1976). Accordingly, your purpose in making the request has no bearing on the public status of any existing responsive 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(1)(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 means 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 SPR17/990 Page2 August 2, 201 7 All petitions for appeal shall be in writing and shall specifically describe the nature of the requester's objections to the response or failure to issue a timely response. 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1)(£). However, based on your July 18th correspondence, it is unclear what the basis of your appeal is. For example, it is unclear whether you are now seeking records directly from DCJIS. Please feel free to re-submit your appeal when you have specifically described the nature of your objections. Sincerely, ~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Agapi Koulouris, Esq.