Release of Baughman e-mails considered

Second District Judge John Stegner took under advisement Thursday a decision whether to release several hundred pages of on-the-job e-mails, some with sexually explicit attachments, between former Kootenai County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rick Baughman and three female co-workers.

In a similar case, Stegner ruled in July 2005 that e-mail exchanges, using county computers, between Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and Marina Kalani, who headed the county juvenile court drug program, were public records. The Idaho Supreme Court upheld Stegner’s ruling, and the Douglas-Kalani e-mails were released last month.

During a telephonic hearing Thursday, Baughman’s attorney, John Redal, argued against release of his client’s e-mails. “Sending e-mails at work is insufficient to make them a public record,” he said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Pat Braden, representing Kootenai County, told the judge that the Supreme Court ruling in the Douglas-Kalani case dictates that the Baughman e-mails also are public record.

Attorney Duane Swinton, representing reporters for The Spokesman-Review who requested the e-mails under the Idaho Public Records Act, said the e-mails should be released as public record for two reasons.

First, computer equipment owned by Kootenai County was used for the exchanges, and both Baughman and three employees of the prosecutor’s office, Kimberly Lochrie, Kathy Adams and Laura Bonneville, were at work when the e-mails were sent, and the public has a right to see their job performance, Swinton said.

Secondly, he said, the county hired an outside expert at taxpayer expense to evaluate the employees’ conduct in exchanging e-mails, which include sexually graphic video attachments. The review was related to the conduct or administration of government, and that should make the e-mails available for public inspection under provisions of the Idaho Public Records Act, Swinton said.