From SPLC.org (3/8/13): he North Carolina Supreme Court split evenly today in a ruling that leaves unresolved the openness of private college police records.
Nick Ochsner, a former student journalist at Elon University, asked the campus police department for a report related to the arrest of another student, but was given little information. Ochsner went to court to determine whether the report was a public record.
In the opinion, the court said it was split 3-3 after Justice Barbara Jackson recused herself. The prior court of appeals decision in the case “is left undisturbed and stands without precedential value,” according to the opinion released Friday.
The court of appeals ruling determined that private schools’ police departments are exempt from North Carolina’s public records law.