St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office releases records following TCPalm’s formal pre-suit letter

It took a formal threat of legal action to get the attention of St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, but it appears he’s now attempting to abide by the law.

Earlier this month, TCPalm / Treasure Coast Newspapers hired an attorney to serve a formal pre-suit notice to Pearson and the Sheriff’s Office on behalf of the citizens of St. Lucie County. This was a last-ditch effort to have the Sheriff’s Office comply with public records laws and First Amendment rights dating to when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him in December.

The sheriff hired Gainesville attorney Gary S. Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson & Patanzo to respond to the pre-suit notice. The response, which came within the five-day demand, included records journalists requested, some admission of mistakes and Pearson’s “uncompromising commitment to transparency and to the expeditious processing of public records requests.”

TCPalm is reviewing the records to determine if the requests were properly satisfied and will report anything newsworthy.

While TCPalm appreciates the response, in our view, there was a lot of blame-shifting instead of full acknowledgment of the Sheriff’s Office's shortcomings. Although the sheriff denied violating the law, his response appeared to show a willingness to correct the First Amendment and public records issues raised.

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Public safety documents, concerns

Shortly after Pearson’s appointment, Public Information Officer Tonya Woodworth abruptly stopped communicating with TCPalm and some other journalists. This included disseminating timely details on public safety incidents.

The Sheriff’s Office isn’t required to provide this service, although most law enforcement and some government agencies do it for transparency and to provide information quickly and accurately to the public.

TCPalm journalists turned to public records requests to report public safety information.

In its pre-suit letter, TCPalm outlined multiple times the Sheriff’s Office failed to provide — and sometimes didn’t even acknowledge — lawfully requested records. In other cases, journalists waited months for the Sheriff’s Office to produce basic records.

In one example cited in the pre-suit letter, TCPalm requested public records pertaining to the Feb. 2 death of Trooper Zachary Fink. The Sheriff’s Office declined the request, stating it did not have any documents to release — despite a deputy writing a report a reporter obtained from the St. Lucie County Clerk’s office the same day of the request.

Edinger explained FHP had requested the Sheriff’s Office direct all media inquiries to its agency, but he also said, “That request does not excuse the Sheriff’s Office from responding to public records requests.”

Or legally filling them, I hope. Florida law requires agencies to provide public records — regardless of the originating source — unless there’s a specific exemption.

“… to the extent the Sheriff’s Office contends there were not documents responsive to the request, that is simply not accurate,” TCPalm’s attorney Daniela Abratt-Cohen of Thomas & LoCicero wrote in a response.

Edinger originally said the “Sheriff agrees that the better practice would have been to tender the limited documentation that was then available and which would not jeopardize the active investigation.”

Records delays, lack of acknowledgment

In another example cited in the pre-suit letter, reporter Will Greenlee on Dec. 5 requested records between Pearson and former Sheriff Ken Mascara. Greenlee followed up twice on the requests without any acknowledgment.

In Edinger’s response, he admits, “It does not appear that Mr. Greenlee’s email was reviewed.” A separate but similar request on Jan. 12 by columnist Laurence Reisman was eventually fulfilled, but only after a month and a follow-up email directly to the sheriff’s general counsel.

About a month after Greenlee’s request, reporter Wicker Perlis asked for public records about speeding citations on Indian River Drive. He sent four follow-up emails over more than two months for updates on his request.

Abratt-Cohen called this “an unjustified delay which constitutes an unlawful refusal to provide access” in her response to Edinger.

After finally getting a cost estimate on March 27, Perlis revised the request to obtain the exact documents the Sheriff’s Office sent to a TV station in January for similar data to expedite this part of the request. The fulfillment should have taken 30 seconds to forward whatever records were sent to the TV station, but the records were included only in the sheriff’s attorney's response last week.

Edinger did not address these delays in his response.

Abratt-Cohen explains in her response these examples show “reporters (or members of the public, for that matter) should not have to continually reach out for updates and should not have to contact the general counsel’s office in order to have requests fulfilled.”

Edinger said his firm is committed to ensuring public officials are treated fairly by the media, but also to “educating Sheriff Pearson with regard to his constitutional obligations under the First Amendment and Florida law.”

Let’s hope so.

New public records system launched

Edinger admitted the Sheriff’s Office didn’t properly respond to public records requests on multiple occasions.

“Like any other large agency, inadvertent mistakes, errors and missteps are made,” he said in the response.

Mistakes happen. But what has transpired over the last five months goes beyond an accident or two.

TCPalm for months has highlighted these public records issues. To help minimize these issues, the Sheriff’s Office earlier this month launched a new public records system, JustFOIA, to “speed and enhance the agency’s ability to respond to public record requests … (and) … significantly decrease backlog and delay,” Edinger wrote.

Many public agencies use the portal system to process public records requests. “Ultimately, the onus is still on the Sheriff’s Office to promptly acknowledge requests (albeit through the portal), produce records in a timely fashion, and cite appropriate exemptions,” Abratt-Cohen explained in her response.

Edinger wrote the Sheriff’s Office disconnected from St. Lucie County’s network following issues between October and January, and “was unable to provide any reports during that time.” If so, it doesn’t excuse the Sheriff’s Office from requests throughout this year.

Only time will tell if the new system helps expedite the fulfillment of public records requests.

Press conference notifications

One of the most outrageous and disappointing responses in the Sheriff’s Office letter was the twisting of TCPalm’s reasoning for serving the formal pre-suit and accusing its journalists of wanting enhanced treatment over other media and the public.

The response read, “It appears that the primary grievance raised … is that TCPalm reporters are not being afforded special treatment and privileges …”

TCPalm’s initial pre-suit letter and this week’s response are clear to the Sheriff’s Office: Follow the law by affording TCPalm journalists the same treatment you give other media. It is illegal for a public agency to purposely exclude certain media from press conferences and media availability announcements.

TCPalm does not need special privileges to report public safety information to St. Lucie County residents. This news organization has never asked for and doesn’t expect any treatment the sheriff wouldn’t afford to others.

“Sheriff Pearson is not required to give special notice of events to TCPalm reporters,” Edinger wrote.

True. But if he calls a press conference or media availability and contacts all media except TCPalm, he is purposely and willfully shutting out information to residents. This practice is not in the best interest of the residents the sheriff serves.

The sheriff’s response spends a lot of time explaining how the Sheriff’s Office never denied TCPalm physical access to press events. TCPalm never said it did. But the Sheriff’s Office has called press events on more than one occasion and specifically excluded TCPalm when it notified other media.

Luckily, our talented journalists found out about most of them through other means and showed up.

All of this is, has always been and will forever be about serving the residents of St. Lucie County to the best of our ability. I hope Pearson can do the same going forward.

Adam L. Neal is the executive editor and news director of TCPalm.com and Treasure Coast Newspapers, including the Indian River Press Journal, St. Lucie News Tribune and Stuart News. Connect with him on social media via @TCPalmAdamNeal.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson releases records, admits deficiencies