Public Complaint No. 1700527122 - 1969895578

Jeffrey Lee Leikauf

El Dorado County Sheriff's Department

200 Industrial Drive

Placerville, California 95667

+1 530-621-5655

https://www.eldorad…

Date of Offense

October 2, 2023

Complaint

Misuse of Department Records

Supporting Document(s)

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Statement

The Sheriff's Office has responded to records requests and dash cam as well as badge cam footage with denials based on evidence codes insufficient to the denial. The requested records were from a case in 2021 of August and El Dorado county states, the sheriff's office does not release these types of records". The request for the records were made August 30th 2023 and I would receive a phone call October 2,2023 to ask who I was in relation to the records requests, three days later I received the denial in the mail, with a date at the top of the denial for January 2023. Multiple requests have been made and it appears El Dorado county is still not compliant with records requests

Location

El Dorado County, CA, USA

38.7426376, -120.4357631

California Public Records Act

§ 6250-6268

The California Public Records Act is a series of laws meant to guarantee that the public has access to public records of governmental bodies in California. In December of 2011, a Superior Court judge ruled that the California Assembly must also disclose budget records of individual lawmakers, after some California newspapers filed a lawsuit accusing legislators of flouting the state’s open records laws.

Public records in the California Public Records Act are defined as “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.” There is a separate category of “purely personal information” that, although it may be in the custody of a government agency, does not fall under the act. Statute 6255 states a catch all exemption, “The agency shall justify withholding any record by demonstrating that the record in question is exempt under express provisions of this chapter or that on the facts of the particular case the public interest served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”

Anyone can request public documents in California, and a purpose does not have to be stated. The California Public Records Act does not regulate the use of records obtained from public agencies. One should allow 10 days for an agency to comply with a records request.

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