Monday, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to release thousands of pages of documents about children who were killed or seriously injured from abuse and neglect. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services had filed a motion for a stay, pending the outcome of an appeal after Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled in February that the cabinet had 90 days to provide the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville with 180 case files of children who died or nearly died as a result of abuse and neglect in 2009 and 2010. The newspapers filed a lawsuit under the Kentucky Open Records Act. Shepherd has ruled twice in the past two years that the newspapers are entitled to child-protection records when a child dies or nearly dies as a result of abuse or neglect. All other state child-protection records are confidential. In January, Shepherd fined the cabinet more than $16,000 for improperly withholding records on abused children and set rules restricting what information the agency may keep private in such cases. Shepherd also ordered the cabinet to pay more than $57,000 in legal fees incurred by three newspapers challenging the cabinet's refusal to release the records. The cabinet appealed Shepherd's order. In Monday's decision, the Court of Appeals denied the newspapers' request to dismiss the cabinet's appeal.
