Clatsop County prosecutor blasts student's records request as 'spam'

In early 2018, journalism students at the University of Oregon sent public records requests to all 36 district attorneys in Oregon, seeking specific records about how the DAs themselves handle public records cases. Most were helpful. But one of district attorneys, Clatsop County's Josh Marquis, was at times defensive and hostile toward William Mallery, the then-UO student journalist who sent him a public records request. Marquis called the student's request as "spam" and offering some unsolicited advice about journalism and the law.

The emails mention the Catalyst Journalism Project is a reporting program at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication that teaches students to use investigative reporting and solutions journalism.

Here's the unedited email exchange between Marquis and the student.

• Feb. 1, 2018: The student sent the original public-records request to Marquis. The request followed a standard format for such requests and was similar to those sent by other UO journalism students to all district attorneys in Oregon.

-snip-

• Feb. 2: Marquis responded the next day. He didn't acknowledge the student's detailed case for a fee waiver and suggested the student was demanding records, which was not the case.

Read more: https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/415875-318129-county-prosecutor-blasts-students-records-request-as-spam-