ATLANTA — It’s not yet clear whether the one-time press secretary to former Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed will seek another appeal of her criminal conviction for violating the state open records law.
The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected Jenna Garland’s first appeal Tuesday. The court said “no” to Garland the same day Atlanta voters apparently said “no” to her former boss.
An advocate of government transparency and easy access to government record cheers the court’s ruling and is calling for more criminal prosecutions under the open records law.
Garland’s problems started with defiant text messages to a subordinate after Channel 2 requested the water billing records of Kasim Reed’s brother and several city councilmembers in early 2017, Reed’s last year in office.
First reported by Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, those text messages became critical evidence in Garland’s trial in Fulton County State Court in 2019.
Two of them read: “Be as unhelpful as possible” and “Drag this out as long as possible.”
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Richard T. Griffiths of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation says upholding Garland’s criminal conviction sends the right message.
“Reaffirming the rule of law, reaffirming the criminal teeth in the open records act is so important,” Griffiths told Belcher.
In an interview about the case last month (the only criminal prosecution ever under the state’s records law), Attorney General Chris Carr said, “We’re proud of what we did. When you’ve got a situation where somebody was affirmatively keeping records from the public, it’s our job to make sure that the law’s upheld.”
Before Carr requested a GBI investigation of Garland and then decided to prosecute her, lawyers for Channel 2 and the AJC complained to the AG about Garland’s boss, mayor Kasim Reed.
In a 2018 letter to Carr, the attorneys wrote: “The city of Atlanta has repeatedly failed to comply with the open records act. city officials have intentionally delayed the production of public information that they deemed politically sensitive or inconvenient.”
The attorneys argued that had created “a pervasive culture of non-compliance.”
Griffiths said making it difficult to get public records isn’t just about transparency.
“Affordable housing, crime all matter as issues but the fact is open records allow us to make decisions about those important issues. If we don’t know what’s going on in our government, then it undermines everything else that we’re trying to do,” he told Belcher.
Griffiths praised Carr’s decision to prosecute Garland under the open records act but contends it’s not enough.
“We would like to see more prosecutions of violations like this both by the attorney general and from state and local prosecutors,” said the former CNN executive.
Garland was ordered to pay a fine after her conviction. The law she violated -- which is a misdemeanor -- does not provide for jail time.
Her attorney did not respond to emails requesting comment on this story.
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