A Cleveland County judge on Wednesday called for more time to consider how much the public can know regarding a lawsuit seeking the release of investigative reports generated by the Jones Day law firm that contain allegations about former OU President David Boren.
Cleveland County Judge Michael Tupper decided to postpone judgment and schedule further hearings regarding public and news media access to the courtroom at a later time after university lawyers motioned to clear the courtroom, claiming the hearing results could disclose sensitive information.
According to university lawyers, the reports contain the details of interviews made in confidence with 62 people. The defense claims making the reports a matter of public record would breach that confidence. Tres Savage, editor-in-chief of the Oklahoma City-based news outlet NonDoc, and his counsel argued the public has a constitutional right to access the details of the investigation and the documents in question are not confidential.
The proceeding on Wednesday afternoon was originally called to hear OU’s motion for summary judgment in the Jones Day open records lawsuit seeking the release of reports containing details of alleged financial and sexual misconduct involving Boren, but the hearing stalled after debate ensued over whether members of the public and journalists in attendance could remain in the courtroom.
In the courtroom, Savage, Jess Eddy — an OU graduate and former teaching assistant who accused Boren of sexual misconduct — and members of the media advocated for public access not to be curtailed.
Ultimately, Tupper decided to delay a decision on accessibility.
“They want everybody to just assume that they're privileged, to take their word for it. They don't even want to be in open court today and talk about their argument,” Savage told reporters outside the courtroom referring to OU’s stance. “This matter is incredibly important for the entire state of Oklahoma, the taxpayer families, parents who send their students to the university, students who go to the university.”
In June 2021, Savage filed a lawsuit against the OU Board of Regents, claiming the university violated the Oklahoma Open Records Act. Savage initially submitted an open records request in 2019, and later filed a lawsuit requesting “any and all reports created by the law firm Jones Day for the University of Oklahoma relating to David Boren or Jim ‘Tripp’ Hall,” his former vice president of University Development.
After Savage initially filed his lawsuit, the university filed a protective order against Savage and NonDoc Media. The order prevents Savage and NonDoc from publishing any information revealed in the discovery phase or behind closed doors.
“They have reports and just because they wrote confidential on the top of them does not make them confidential,” Savage said. “They have to prove that the exemption to the Open Records Act applies.”
The reports were compiled by Jones Day, an international law firm. OU paid the law firm over half a million dollars between 2018 and 2019 to investigate, in part, whether Boren and Hall acted inappropriately toward aides and students.
The reports compiled in 2018 and 2019 were sent to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 2019, but charges were not filed against Boren, Hall or the university. The reports supposedly detail witnesses’ statements regarding allegations of sexual misconduct against Boren and Hall as well as the law firm’s findings of donation data misreporting during Boren’s administration.
“We're three years into this litigation, and we can't even have a hearing for their own motion where the public gets to listen to what the stakes are, what the evidence is, what the facts are,” Savage said. “Facts are not privileged.”
This story was edited by Ana Barboza. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
