Just the News' Solomon seeks judgment on St. Louis circuit attorney open-record request

Just the News CEO John Solomon on Monday filed a motion for judgment against the office of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney for failing to respond to his requests and related court filings to obtain government records under the state’s open-records statutes or so-called "sunshine laws."

Solomon filed the initial request for the information on July 5, 2019, seeking records of contacts between Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and her staff with more than a dozen individuals and entities — including the Missouri Workforce Housing Association, George Soros, the Soros Fund Management, the Safety and Justice PAC and state Reps. Stacy Newman and Jay Barnes. 

The suit seeks information on contacts with those named from Jan. 6, 2017 through July 3, 2019.

The motion Monday was filed in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis Twenty-Second Judicial Court State of Missouri by Solomon’s attorney, David Roland of the Freedom Center of Missouri. 

It argues the circuit attorney made three separate "knowing and purposeful" violations of the sunshine laws. 

Solomon and his attorney have filed several court actions in an attempt to obtain the information through the courts, following the circuit attorney’s failure to comply with the open-records requests.

The most recent, prior to the request for judgment Monday, was a June 9 amended petition to which the defendant failed to respond within the 30-day deadline. 

“Despite nearly six months having elapsed since Solomon initiated this case, the circuit attorney nonetheless has not filed a responsive pleading that denied any of the averments Solomon has made, either in his petition or in his amended petition,” Roland argues in the 14-page filing.

Roland also attempts to make clear in the filing that his client "is not requesting a default judgment, but rather a judgment on the merits of his claims."

The filing also asks the court to award Solomon $27,448.71 for legal and other fees related to his open records request.