REPORTER FILES SUIT AGAINST GILMER OFFICIALS - Failure To Provide Public Information

(01/13/2012)
Reporter Files Suit To Compel Release Of Dispute Between Gilmer Clerk, Va. Bank

By Chris Dickerson
Kanawha Bureau WV Record
wvrecord.com

GLENVILLE - A freelance journalist is suing Gilmer County officials for failing to respond to his repeated requests for information about details in a lawsuit settlement involving a housing project with ties to Glenville State College.

Gilmer County Clerk Jean Butcher and the Gilmer County Commission are named as co-defendants in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Jay Lawrence Smith.

In his complaint filed Dec. 23 in Gilmer Circuit Court, Smith, a regular contributor to The West Virginia Record, is asking a judge to compel release of details in the settlement reached late last year in a suit Winchester, Va.-based Summit Community Bank brought against the clerk's office alleging an improperly recorded lien caused them to be an unnecessary defendant in a breach of contract suit.

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