Shasta County spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep records from the public

Shasta County officials have spent more than $220,000 fighting the release of documents, according to information obtained after it lost a court fight over releasing copies of an internal investigation and other documents.

Shasta County officials said Wednesday that the county spent $134,336 since 2022 on legal fees and costs associated with a lawsuit filed by the Record Searchlight in July 2022.

The newspaper filed four California Public Records Act requests for documents related to an investigation into former Sheriff Eric Magrini and his management of the sheriff's office. The newspaper also requested documents and communications among top county officials in 2021 about Magrini's resignation as sheriff and transfer to the job of assistant county executive officer.

The county refused to hand over the bulk of those records, so the newspaper filed a lawsuit in Shasta County Superior Court asking a judge to force the county to hand over the information.

The county lost the lawsuit and in August 2023 the county handed over a copy of the investigation, known as the Ellis Report, along with hundreds of pages of associated communications.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Stephen Baker ordered the county to reimburse the Record Searchlight another $89,157 for its legal fees and costs, bringing the total cost to the county, so far, to $223,493.

David Maung, a spokesman for the county, said there may yet be more costs associated with the case. The county hired the law firm Best Best & Krieger to represent it in the case.

"These are not necessarily the final totals. There may still be outstanding invoices, but this represents what we have paid so far," Maung said in an email.

The county paid $125,837 in legal fees in fiscal year 2022-23 and another $8,498 from July 2023 to Feb. 7, 2024, Maung said.

The Record Searchlight's attorney, Walt McNeill, said Monday that his costs to represent the newspaper were about three times the amount the paper paid in previous court fights to obtain records from government agencies. The higher costs were due to the effort from the county's lawyers to prevent releasing of the information, he said.

"What was different about this case was you had an approach by the county that used trench warfare to prevent release of public records," McNeill said. "They objected at every conceivable opportunity and forced the court and the newspaper to work three times as hard to get the records released."

Baker ruled April 10, 2023 that the county must relinquish the records, but the county asked the judge to hold a new trial on the issues or to vacate his previous order. Both requests were denied. The county's lawyers also asked the judge to review the thousands of pages of records for needed redactions.

The county's lawyers argued at the time that the records should not be made public because they were either private, personnel matters or were off limits because they were communications between the county and its attorneys.

The county did not release the documents until August 2023, more than two years after the newspaper filed its first request for the information.

While the case to obtain records is winding down, the county continues to face legal issues from when Magrini was appointed sheriff by the Board of Supervisors at the end of 2019.

Former Shasta County sheriff's captain Pat Kropholler filed in a lawsuit against the county in May 2022, claiming he was retaliated against, while Magrini was sheriff, for refusing to perform duties Kropholler said were illegal.

Kropholler, who has since resigned from his post, said in his lawsuit that former Sheriff Eric Magrini and Undersheriff Jason Barnhart "blackballed" him for raising concerns about alleged wrongdoing in the department.

The lawsuit says Kropholler was retaliated against after he raised many of the same issues that were investigated in the Ellis Report. That case is set for trial in January next year, according to court records.

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County's legal costs rise to more than $220,000 in records case