Kentucky Court of Justice
Court Records Retention Committee to meet Oct. 1 in Frankfort

Frankfort, Ky. -- The Court Records Retention Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Frankfort to consider how the Kentucky court system retains, destroys and archives court records statewide. The meeting will be held at the Administrative Office of the Courts.

This will be the CRRC's second meeting since Chief Justice of Kentucky John D. Minton Jr. formed the committee in late August. The first CRRC meeting was Sept. 4 in Frankfort.

Who: The CRRC members represent those with an interest in the preservation of court records, including judges, attorneys, circuit court clerks and personnel from the Administrative Office of the Courts. The members are Court of Appeals Judge Thomas B. Wine, who chairs the committee; Jefferson County Family Court Judge Patricia Walker FitzGerald; Senior Judge Roger L. Crittenden; District Judge Brandy O. Brown, who serves Clark and Madison counties; Woodford County Circuit Court Clerk Tricia Kittinger; Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson; Fayette County Attorney Larry Roberts; Damon Preston, director of the Trial Division of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy; Kevin Smalley, manager of the AOC Division of Clerk Services; Jim Columbia, manager of the AOC Division of Records and Statistics; and Brian Sudduth, supervisor of the AOC Division of Accessioning; Barbara Teague, director of the Public Records Division of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.

What: Chief Justice Minton formed the CRRC to consider how the Kentucky court system should address records storage across the state. In 1977 the legislature gave the chief justice of Kentucky statutory authority to determine how court records are to be maintained.

Judge Wine, who chairs the committee, has said the CRRC’s goals are to ensure community safety by keeping the records prosecutors need to effectively prosecute individuals who have committed crimes against the commonwealth, maintain criminal records that citizens may seek to have expunged and to appropriately spend limited state funds with regard to records storage.

The records retention process came to the forefront in late 2006 when the AOC, following current guidelines, destroyed records in Jefferson County. Prosecutors and others called for a change to the records retention policy, maintaining that the destruction of records eliminated information necessary for enhancing the charges of offenders and other significant uses. After a panel recommended changes to the policy, the AOC announced in April 2007 that the destruction of all court records would be halted statewide until the issue could be further reviewed.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 1, 9:30 a.m.

Where: Administrative Office of the Courts, Building 12 conference room. The AOC is located at 100 Millcreek Park in Frankfort.

The AOC is the operational arm of the Kentucky Court of Justice and supports the activities of 4,000 court system employees, including the elected offices of justices, judges and circuit court clerks. The AOC also executes the Judicial Branch budget.