The Ohio Supreme Court denied Otterbein University’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by former Otterbein360 editor Anna Schiffbauer and gave Otterbein 21 days to respond to the suit.
In 2011, Otterbein University transitioned its security department into a fully functioning and commissioned police department. This change would mean that former security officers as well as new hires would be fully trained police officers that would carry weapons, be able to arrest offenders and patrol a set jurisdiction within the city of Westerville.
After the Otterbein Police department denied records requests from Otterbein360 staff, Schiffbauer filed a lawsuit against the University. Schiffbauer’s suit alleges that because Otterbein Police serve a public governmental function, all criminal records within that department are to be treated the same as a municipal police department records and therefore open to access to the public per Ohio Revised Code.
In September, Mike Dewine, the Ohio Attorney General, filed an amicus brief in support of Schiffbauer's lawsuit.
In February last year, the suit was sent to mediation by the Supreme Court but yielded no results. This prompted Otterbein to file a motion for dismissal which was denied by the court this week.
There are similarities to other cases in other states. According to Jonathan Peters, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas specializing in first amendment and media studies and affiliated with the Student Press Law Center. Peters said that the most notable case with the most similarities was at Elon University in North Carolina where, in 2011, a student journalist filed suit against the University and the Attorney General of North Carolina for not releasing police records.
Peters said "When it went to court, the issue was 'does the police force of the private university have to comply with the state's public records act?' Unfortunately when it went to the supreme court, it was a tie, it was a 3-3 split."
Peters said that such a tie was usually not possible, but one of the justices recused himself from the case. This meant that the lower court's decision to exempt university records was upheld.
"Ohio is not the only state grappling with these issues and probably the most analogistic case would be the [Elon University case] from North Carolina a couple years ago," Peters said.
Otterbein University declined to comment.
