County to consider $170K settlement related to legal battle with RJ

Clark County will consider paying a $170,000 settlement related to litigation with the Las Vegas Review-Journal over the release of child autopsies, which the Nevada Supreme Court ruled were public records.

The county district attorney’s office recommended approval of the one-time payment, which accounts for Review-Journal legal fees. The County Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposed agreement during Tuesday’s meeting, according to the commission agenda.

An agreement would dismiss the case with prejudice, but there will be no admission of liability, according to a copy of the proposed settlement.

If approved, it would be the county’s second six-figure settlement associated with the case.

“I sincerely hope Clark County commissioners approve this settlement and finally end a yearslong legal fight that never should have begun in the first place,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said. “More importantly, I hope county leadership stops wasting taxpayer money to defend the hiding of important records from the public.”

The proposed settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the newspaper in 2017, after the coroner’s office refused to release autopsies requested through a public records request as part of an investigation into the county’s child protection division.

Nearly four years and two Supreme Court orders later, a district judge then awarded the Review-Journal $167,000 in legal fees, which was about $40,000 less than the newspaper had sought.

Attorney Maggie McLetchie, who represented the Review-Journal, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Clark County for years had contended that autopsy reports were confidential, despite the fact that the documents are not exempted under the Nevada Public Records Act.

The county released 653 unredacted child autopsies on New Year’s Eve 2020, a day after a deadline set by a district judge.

But the legal fight didn’t end there, and the Review-Journal continued to incur legal fees in connection with the public records case as the county resisted full transparency.

Under the proposed second financial settlement, Clark County would have 45 days to pay the $170,000.

The county had spent about $80,000 in taxpayer money in the public records fight by March 2021.

“This Agreement is being made voluntarily and not based on representations or statements of any kind made by any of the parties or their representatives as to the merits, legal liability, or value of the claim or any other matter relating thereto,” the settlement agreement said.

This story has been updated to clarify that the proposed settlement would be the county’s second such payment to the Review-Journal.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.