According to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the University of Kentucky violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act by failing to provide emails and text messages between head football coach Mark Stoops, associate head coach Vince Marrow and two “private individuals.”
The original request came from Charlotte Flanary, who works for the Kentucky Democratic party, on Sept. 7, the same day Stoops retweeted Kelly Craft’s campaign for governor announcement from his UK Twitter account. Craft is a Republican.
The university responded by saying that the request made was “too broad.”
UK said it would only comply if Flanary specified a timeframe which she believes the communication took place as well as specific search terms. This led to no text messages or tweets being handed over to the courts.
Flanary said that the absence of timeframes was due to her asking for specific emails from the individuals specified.
An appeal process is now underway. The deadline given to UK to submit its appeal to the appropriate circuit court is thirty days after the date of the decision (Oct. 13).
“We are committed [to] transparency on these matters. We are simply asking to narrow a very broad request and, in fact, had responded to a similar, but narrower request, recently from another media outlet,” the university said in a statement.
