BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Former Los Alamos High School assistant softball coach Melissa Gutierrez has filed a complaint for damages under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) in First Judicial District Court against Los Alamos Public Schools and Assistant Supt. Carter Payne in his capacity as the District’s custodian of records.

The complaint states that Gutierrez submitted two IPRA requests in 2023, the first to Supt. Jennifer Guy, who at that time was listed on the LAPS website as the records, and the second to Asst. Supt. Payne.

In the first request submitted June 12, 2023 to Supt. Guy asked for copies of all emails sent or received by Athletic Director Ann Stewart related to an email Stewart sent out titled “LAHS Softball” on June 8, 2023. Gutierrez requested the original email and names of all blind copy recipients of the email. On June 14, 2023, Gutierrez received an email from Guy acknowledging receipt of the first IPRA request and stating that LAPS would need additional to respond to Gutierrez’s request. The email said the District anticipated that the requested records would be made available to Gutierrez by June 27, 2023, which was 15 days from when LAPS received the request for records.

On June 30, 2023, 18 days after the request was submitted to Supt. Guy, Gutierrez received an email seeking an additional 30 days to fulfill the request due to the staff not being available to pull the emails from the LAPS system.

As of the filing of Gutierrez’s District Court complaint, the records from this request had not been received. The complaint states that LAPS has not described the records withheld and the person responsible for withholding them.

On July 24, 2023, Gutierrez sent a second IPRA request, the complaint states, and received a response that the records she requested would be available on or before August 8, 2023, however that date was extended to August 31, 2023. On that date, Gutierrez received an email from Asst. Supt. Payne telling her that records in response to the second IPRA request had been fulfilled “to the best of our ability” and were available for pick-up. Gutierrez asked for the records to be sent to her via email and Payne responded that LAPS would be happy to do so, however it would create a delay and that the printed copies filled a small box.

On September 1, 2023, Gutierrez made arrangements to have the documents picked up, but upon review she determined that the vast majority of documents produced were non-responsive to her request.

The second IPRA request asked for records that contain information that Gutierrez was terminated or that she officially resigned from LAPS, including any correspondence stating that she was not or would not like to return as a coach, from January 2023 to the time of the request. She also asked for all records pertaining to termination of coaches based based on the resignation or termination of the program’s head coach; hiring of a new coach and coaching staff for the softball program January 2023 to the time of the request; all correspondence to and from Athletic Director Ann Stewart and Doug Weiss that pertain to Gutierrez or her daughter, and Supt. Guy pertaining to Gutierrez; all records related to investigations of athletic programs from 2020 to the time of the request; the record that initiated the investigation referenced in Stewart’s June 8, 2023 email; any and all investigation and policies in effect for the school district; any and all policies regarding the sharing human resources matters in a public setting; and all records that show acknowledgement by Stewart that she would comply with school district policies

The complaint states that some of the documents Gutierrez received had redactions with no specific exemptions cited and included blank pages where it could not be determined whether they were redacted or not. Gutierrez maintains records remain that are responsive to the IPRA request but have not been produced, and that LAPS has not described the remaining records or the person responsible for the denial or any basis for the denial.

“IPRA explicitly provides that a person whose request has been denied may enforce their right to inspect such records through an action in court,” the complaint notes. It states that Gutierrez has in this enforcement action incurred damages, costs and attorney’s fees and is entitled to recovery of those injuries and expenditures. It asked that the Court order the production of the “wrongly-held public documents”.

Gutierrez has asked the Court to find that LAPS has violated the Inspection of Public Records Act in the two instances described in the complaint and to order LAPS to produce the public records sought by Gutierrez for each of the two claims. She is also asking the Court to award damages and reasonable attorney’s fees to her for each of the two claims, and to grant other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.

The LAPS answer to Gutierrez’s complaint was filed March 1, 2024. It denies that Gutierrez has any meritorious claims against LAPS, denies any and all liability to her, and denies any and all injuries or damages to her.

The answer states that any purported damages claimed by Gutierrez “are the result of her own negligence, misconduct and/or conduct, acts or omissions”. It maintains the alleged actions in the case “do not rise to the level of statutory violation.” In addition it maintains that the requests for documents were not denied, therefore Gutierrez is not entitled to any remedies under IPRA.

LAPS claims it complied with all the provisions of IPRA and “asserted legally recognized exceptions”.

“IPRA doesn’t provide for damages to an action brought after a public body has complied with the act,” the LAPS answer states.

LAPS believes a custodian of records can make reasonable restrictions and conditions to access to public records.

LAPS is asking the Court to dismiss Gutierrez’s complaint with prejudice and award the district their costs and fees.

Gutierrez is represented by Albuquerque attorney Thomas Graver and LAPS is being represented by Santa Fe attorneys Carlos Quinones and Nechama D. Minkowicz. The case is assigned to Judge Jason Lidyard.