The Kentucky Kernel filed a lawsuit against the University of Kentucky after it did not provide requested records concerning the case of the alleged rape and strangulation of a UK student in an on-campus residence hall.
The lawsuit was filed in Fayette County Circuit Court on Nov. 25. The Kernel said UK is “willfully violating” the Open Records Act by denying the Kernel’s request.
The Kernel requested an “expedited” legal process, a judgement from the court for UK to “immediately disclose” the requested records and monetary compensation should the Kernel win the case, according to the lawsuit.
On Sept. 25, Lexington Police arrested Chase McGuire, who is not a UK student, for the alleged rape and strangulation of a UK student in her Chellgren Hall dorm. McGuire was charged with five counts of 1st degree rape, four counts of 3rd degree sodomy, one count of 3rd degree sexual abuse and one count of 1st degree strangulation (attempted).
Kernel Editor-in-Chief Abbey Cutrer filed an open records request on Oct. 2 seeking a list of non-UK student guests that entered Chellgren Hall on Sept. 20, 2024, between the hours of midnight and 8 p.m., and all records on any occasion where McGuire entered a UK residential hall this academic year.
The UK Open Records Office denied this request on Oct. 10. Cutrer then asked the office to reconsider their decision.
“The public interest in the disclosure of this information plainly outweighs any asserted reason for refusing to disclose it,” Cutrer said in her response to the denial.
According to the lawsuit, UK argues that non-student residence hall guests have a privacy right, shielding the fact of their visitations from the public, regardless of whether they were charged with a crime committed in the dorm.
UK also argued non-student residence hall sign-in logs are “preliminary” and therefore exempt from the Open Records Act which would otherwise require UK to provide the Kernel with those documents.
The Open Records Act of Kentucky establishes the public’s right to access examination public records in the public interest, according to the act.
According to the lawsuit, both arguments from the university “fail, as a matter of law.”
This is not the first time the Kernel and UK have faced each other in lawsuits over the Open Records Act. In 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Kernel and ordered UK hand over records related to a sexual assault case, ending the six year legal battle.
This lawsuit only represents one side of the case. According to the Kernel’s lawyers, the university has 20 days to respond.
