In June 2008, Christian filed a million dollar disability discrimination lawsuit against Mitchell, and other state officials, in a Norfolk Virginia federal court. Mitchell refused to turn over the documents, arguing they were exempt from FOIA disclosure because they were subject to the jurisdiction of federal "discovery" rules.
Mitchell's attorney, Jeff Rosen with Pender and Coward, filed a motion in federal court last week, in an attempt to prevent Christian from receiving the documents, but failed to convince the federal judge presiding over the disability discrimination lawsuit to intervene.
The battle over the documents continued in state court, where Christian's Writ of Mandamus asked the judge find Mitchell in violation of the law, and force her to disclose the documents.
The court rejected Mitchell's argument that Christian had forfeited his rights to receive documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act when he filed his disability discrimination lawsuit against her in federal court.
Agreeing with Christian that there is no “discovery rule” exemption to a Virginia FOIA request, the Court ruled Faye Mitchell violated the law by improperly withholding public documents, ordered the documents disclosed, and awarded Christian his costs.
Posted August 6th, 2008 by its2soon2quit
