Jacob Wetterling's Family Sues, Preventing Records Release

The public release of the closed law enforcement investigation into the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling, which was scheduled for Monday, June 5, will be delayed. Late Thursday, the Wetterling family filed suit to keep portions of the file private that contained personal family information, information that is not considered private under the Data Practices Act, according to authorities.

In a statement, Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall said county officials found "that the law does not allow us to protect these victims’ wishes and interests. We have multiple requests for the release of this closed criminal investigation."

Due to the now pending legal action, release of the file will be delayed until a judge has had a chance to review exactly what is disputed. Based on a conference call with the judge this afternoon, information in dispute is to be submitted to the court on June 30.

"We have worked diligently with those impacted to balance the demands of transparency and the interests of victims," Kendall continued. "Since the data practices laws are both brief and interwoven throughout Minnesota statute, hundreds of interpretations were made by teams of over 20 staff, up to 14 persons at a time, beginning in late October and continuing today in preparation for the planned release."

Kendall said that more than 56,000 pages of reports and other data were repeatedly reviewed for a number of assessments, primarily victim identification, which is entangled in the context of the entire file. "A mere key word search to remove specific information does not satisfy the requirements of the statute; removal of one fact or concept may appear in context in other documents," Kendall added.

Read the rest of the statement below:

Victim’s concerns are stark: hundreds of sexual abuse victims were identified in the reports from many law enforcement agencies that forwarded their sexual abuse investigations to Stearns County so that the perpetrators in those files could be investigated for taking Jacob. The file has been reviewed multiple times to make every effort to ensure those victims are not identified. Before even beginning the redaction process, Stearns County met with the State of Minnesota’s Information Policy and Analysis Division to best ensure protection of victims and appropriate disclosure of public information.

Despite these efforts, it is true that intensely personal information remains public under Minnesota statute.

The question therefore arises – what does the public need to know? In the Legislature’s discussion about body cameras worn by law enforcement, they decided that the situations encountered by law enforcement were not always appropriately publicly viewable – so they built in the option of judicial review. That’s what the Wetterlings are asking for here. Since we have determined that current statutes require disclosure, this is an understandable choice.

Despite intense public interest, this case involves thousands of real human beings and years of intense personal tragedy. It’s 27 years’ worth of information; the lengthy process to review and redact it should not be surprising.

Pending the judicial decision and subsequent application of any resulting order, the release of the file will be delayed. Since we are now in litigation, no further information will be available.

Janelle Kendall
Stearns County Attorney

The Jacob Wetterling Story: A 5-Part Patch Special Report

Read the Sterns County Sheriff's statement below:

Image via MissingKids.org, used with permission