Heather Stevenson v. Bristol County District Attorney's Office (SPR 20200056)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords January 27, 2020 SPR20/0056 Mary Lee, Esq. Assistant District Attorney Office of the District Attorney Bristol District 868 Purchase Street, P.O. Box 973 New Bedford, MA 02740 Dear Attorney Lee: I have received the petition of Heather Stevenson, Esq., Assistant General Counsel of Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC, appealing the response of the Office of the District Attorney - Bristol District (DAO) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1O A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe requested "any and all records" pertaining to Aaron Hernandez. Mr. Wallack specified categories of records that should be included with the requested records. Previous appeals This request was the subject of previous appeals. See SPRI 7/706 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (May 26, 2017); SPRl 7/801 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (June 28, 2017); SPRl 7/986 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (August 2, 2017); SPRl 7/1144 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (September 6, 2017); SPRl 7/1404 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (October 18, 2017); SPRl 7/ 1664 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (December 15, 2017); SPR18/021 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 19, 2018, February 21, 2018); SPR18/652 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (May 22, 2018); SPR18/2097 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 10, 2018); SPRl 9/677 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (April 10, 2019); SPRl 9/943 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (May 22, 2019); SPRl 9/2016 Determination of the SupervisorofRecords (October 17, 2019). Please note that this office referred this order to the Office of the Attorney General (AGO) for enforcement. As detailed in a September 3, 2019 letter from Assistant Attorney General Carrie Benedon, Director of the Division of Open Govermnent, the Boston Globe filed a motion in Superior Court to terminate or clarify the 2014 Order" ... and on July 22, 2019, the Superior Court (McGuire, J.) allowed the Globe's motion, and terminated the 2014 Order." Attorney Benedon noted that "[t]hereafter, on August 20, after further communication with Mr. 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

Mary Lee, Esq. SPR20/0056 Page 2 January 27, 2020 Wallack, the DAO produced a first batch ofresponsive records, and stated that it intends to produce another batch of records by September 4." In my October 17th determination I considered the appeal closed in light of the DAO's October 7, 2019 supplemental response. Attorney Stevenson appealed to this office and SPR20/0056 was opened as a result. Current appeal In the current appeal petition Attorney Stevenson indicates "[t]hough the Department continues to produce some documents responsive to Mr. Wallack's request, which we appreciate, I believe that the Department has failed to prove 'with specificity' the existence of an adequate legal basis under the Public Records Law for withholding ce1iain of the categories of documents included within the request which it has thus far refused to produce." Attorney Stevenson addresses the exemption claims in the DAO's October th response. Subsequent to the opening of the appeal, the DAO provided a supplemental response on January 14, 2020. In this response you assert "[b]y agreement with the original requestor, Todd Wallack, this office is reviewing the very large request page by page and producing installments of redacted pages every ten business days. These records are being produced to his designee, Andrew Ryan. To date, this office has produced 4;787 pages and re-delivered 112 pages on October 17 and 788 pages on December 12 when delivery had failed." You note that the DAO intends to provide additional installments ofrecords. The DAO also addresses Attorney Stevenson's objections to the DAO's exemption claims. Whereas the DAO's supplemental response explains that it has provided additional records, is continuing to provide the requestor installments of responsive records, and provides additional information regarding its exemption claims, I will consider this appeal closed. Attorney Stevenson may appeal the substantive nature of the DAO's January 14th response within 90 days. Fmiher, Attorney Stevenson may appeal if the remaining responsive records are not received in a timely manner. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). This office encourages the requestor and the DAO to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, § IO(b)(vii) (an agency shall suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the reques·tor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the agency to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Sincerely, ~~ Supervisor of Records cc: Heather Stevenson, Esq.