Prosecutor Ordered to Pay $36,000 for Open Records Violation

A central Missouri prosecutor’s office has been ordered to pay $36,000 for failing to provide records to a man doing research for the marijuana activist group Show-Me Cannabis.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Cole County prosecutor’s office broke state law in 2015 in refusing to provide records to Aaron Malin.

Malin says he’s “thrilled” by the ruling. The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled in 2017 that former prosecutor Mark Richardson “knowingly and purposefully” violated Missouri’s open-records laws. Malin sought communication between Richardson and a drug task force.

Richardson lost the August Republican primary to Locke Thompson, who is now prosecutor.