JEFFERSON CITY | A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit seeking access to thousands of e-mails from the governor’s office, but will give the plaintiff time to amend his case.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled the plaintiff, former Missouri Highway Patrol Chief Mel Fisher, did not have standing to bring the suit.
Fisher’s attorney called the ruling a procedural matter and said it was “not substantive.”
“This is certainly consistent with the delaying tactics the governor has been using for the past seven months,” Chet Pleban said. “Sooner or later, he’s going to have to address the substantive issues in this case.”
A spokeswoman for Gov. Matt Blunt applauded the decision, but reiterated the governor’s belief that he would win the suit should it continue.
“This political lawsuit accuses the governor of actions he did not take, it accuses the governor of actions that even if true would not be a violation of the law and it accuses the governor of actions that did not occur,” Spokeswoman Jessica Robinson said in a statement. “Should Jay Nixon or his political operatives consider a similar lawsuit, we stand ready to make all of these arguments for yet another dismissal.”
Fisher is heading an independent investigative team appointed by Attorney General Jay Nixon to examine how the governor’s office handles e-mail records. He sued the governor’s office in May after officials told him it would cost more than $500,000 to comply with a wide-ranging records request.
In the suit, Fisher is seeking access to the records — which may number in the hundreds of thousands — free of charge.
The two sides argued the case before Callahan on Thursday, and the judge said he would likely rule on the matter early next week. Instead, the decision came down early Friday afternoon.
In the ruling, the court grants Fisher 10 days to file a new petition establishing his right to sue or to allow the attorney general himself to become involved. One possibility —which the Callahan even brought up during the hearing on Thursday — would be for Nixon to appoint Fisher as a special assistant attorney general.
Pleban acknowledged that this was an option for continuing the case, but said he had not yet had a chance to study the issue in depth.
The attorney general’s office responded to the ruling with a statement saying it was committed to making open records available.
“We are reviewing the order and will make sure the independent investigative team has all the legal tools needed to accomplish this important work,” said Spokesman Scott Holste in the statement.
The investigative team’s work began last fall, when the attorney general’s office was told by employees in the state Office of Administration that officials in the governor’s office had ordered the destruction of back-up tapes to avoid complying with records requests submitted by members of the media, including The Kansas City Star. As part of the investigation, Fisher requested the records in January and then filed suit in May.
