No-Bill Notification

Mr. Ziegler,

My name is Gary Krautmann and I am legal counsel to the St. Louis County
Circuit Clerk, Ms. Joan M. Gilmer.
Your February 5th message below, has come to me for reply.

I note that you made your request “Pursuant to the Missouri Sunshine Law
and Missouri Public Records Law”, which I understand to be contained in
Chapter 610 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri. Please be advised that
the Sunshine Law govern access to only the administrative records of the
judicial department of Missouri. Access to the judicialrecords of the
judicial department of Missouri, however, is controlled by Missouri
Supreme Court Operating Rule 2, and not by the Sunshine Law. I attach a
copy of Operating Rule 2 for you.

Specifically, Operating Rule 2 governs access to the records of the
judicial department of Missouri, 2.01 Scope of Rule. The judicial records
of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County are included within the records
of the judicial department of Missouri.

Moving now to your specific request, "A copy of the no-bill notification
from the grand jury investigation of the shooting of Michael Brown."
cannot be provided for the reason that it is confidential and is not a
public record. Access to grand jury records is controlled by Missouri
Supreme Court Operating Rule 4. I also attach a copy of Operating Rule 4
for you.

Specifically, Operating Rule 4.21 6) b), provides that "Courts shall
maintain the following records pertaining to grand and petit juries: ... 6
) True bills and no true bills issued by grand juries: ...b) "No true
bills" shall be placed in a sealed envelope, along with all documents
related to the case, and filed in a confidential area.", and Operating
Rule 4.24 1) i) provides that
"Confidential records shall be maintained so as to be inaccessible to the
general public. Such records may be sealed. The following, including court
docket sheets and indexes for these matters, are confidential: ...i) No
true bills, which are to be sealed."

Finally, if you chose to consider this response to be a denial of access
pursuant to 2.08 Access Procedures, and you want to request a review by
the State Judicial Records Committee, pursuant to 2.09 Access Denial
Review, you should mail your request addressed as follows:
State
Judicial Records Committee
c/o Office
of State Courts Administrator
PO Box
104480
Jefferson
City, MO 65110

Sincerely,
Gary Krautmann