BATON ROUGE – Attorney General Jeff Landry is suing a newspaper reporter who made a public records request seeking copies of sexual harassment complaints about one of Landry’s lieutenants.
Landry filed the lawsuit in the 19th Judicial Court in East Baton Rouge Parish earlier this month against Andrea Gallo, a reporter for The Advocate, after she sought records relating to harassment complaints against Deputy Attorney General Pat Magee. Gallo was eventually informed that due to privacy concerns about individuals involved in the complaint, the records had to remain confidential, according to the lawsuit Landry’s office filed.
“Public disclosure of the complaint would be in direct contravention of (Louisiana Department of Justice) policy, public policy and statutory mandates requiring confidentiality surrounding employee complaints and grievances regarding, including but not limited to, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, violations of state and federal law, and violations of LADOJ policies and procedures,” the complaint states.
In addition, if the privacy expectations of those involved in making such complaints were to be undermined, the result would be a chilling effect on the reporting and investigation of such incidents, according to the lawsuit. Moreover, redactions of the records in this case would not be sufficient to protect privacy concerns, the complaint says.
The Advocate’s attorney, Scott Sternberg, said the effect of Landry’s lawsuit against Gallo would be to make other citizens seeking public records from government agencies less willing to make the request over fears of being sued.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that Jeff Landry’s office doesn’t want us to have these records,” Sternberg told the Louisiana Record. “... To me, it’s pretty cut and dried. The requester is supposed to sue the custodian, not the other way around.”
In Louisiana, government agencies have a huge advantage because they can file such lawsuits without having to pay filing fees, he said. In contrast, private parties have to pay $1,200 to $1,400 to file such legal complaints, according to Sternberg.
“This is a lawsuit-happy state, and Jeff Landry is usually the person criticizing those lawsuit-happy people,” he said.
Sternberg expressed concern about copycat lawsuits in which parishes, hospitals and school districts might sue public records requesters because they don’t want to release public records.
“We have every intention of fighting for these records and showing the public of Louisiana that we won’t be intimidated,” he said, adding that citizens have the right to know if a public employee is sexually harassing co-workers.
Other attorneys would have advised the attorney general to handle things in the traditional way – waiting for the reporter to sue him after the records were withheld over privacy concerns, according to Sternberg.
“What he managed to do was bungle his way to making 28-year-old Andrea Gallo the victim,” he said. “We have every intention of fighting back with gusto.”