Southern State Correctional Facility. File photo by Phoebe Sheehan/VTDigger
The news organization has sought the records since September, when DOC officials dismissed Adams without citing a reason for the decision.
In its lawsuit, filed in Washington County Superior Court on Wednesday, VTDigger argues that records requests related to Adams, who faces an allegation of sexual harassment from 2015, are in the public interest.
“The records requested by VTDigger are relevant to the public’s significant interest in learning about the operations of a State-owned correctional facility, being able to scrutinize the work-related conduct of public employees and any investigation of such conduct,” the lawsuit says.
The department denied portions of the request for records, and warned that producing other documents could come with a price tag of more than $12,000. David Turner, DOC’s public records officer [said it would take 400 hours of staff time] to sort through 12,000 complaints filed by inmates against Adams and other personnel.
Turner rejected a request for records that would describe what actions were taken by the DOC in response to complaints against Adams.
“These are personal documents relating to an individual, including information in any files maintained to hire, evaluate, promote or discipline an employee,” he wrote.
They also gave a blanket denial to a request for communications between Adams and the DOC over the decision to remove him as superintendent.
VTDigger appealed the denials to then-corrections commissioner Lisa Menard, who denied the news organization again on Sept. 21, stating the records were personal documents “relating to an individual, including information in any files maintained to hire, evaluate, promote, or discipline an employee; therefore, they are exempt from public disclosure.”
In its suit, the news organization says that the exemption the department cites is “highly unlikely to apply to all portions of all documents requested by VTDigger.”
“Yet DOC made no effort to explain how this exemption might apply to the various responsive records or to provide appropriately redacted records,” it states.
In October, Burlington Free Press reported that a former female correctional officer at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility filed a complaint in 2015 against Adams and the DOC alleging officials had created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and inappropriate comments.
Adams was superintendent at the Chittenden Regional facility between June 2014 and January 2016.
The Free Press reported that Adams asked the female officer, who had reported an incident of sexual harassment between one of her male managers and a female inmate, to reenact the scene in front of him. He then photographed the reenactment.
Before and after Adams was removed as the superintendent of Southern State, VTDigger received anonymous tips citing a hostile work environment and sexual harassment at Southern State, fostered by Adams.
The Free Press reported that since 2013, at least six sexual harassment complaints have been filed with the Human Rights Commission against the DOC.
“In light of recent lawsuits and reporting implicating sex discrimination and sexual misconduct within the DOC, specific allegations of Edward Adams’ inappropriate behavior during his tenure…there is a strong public interest in information about how DOC has addressed such incidents,” the lawsuit says.
Read the story on VTDigger here: VTDigger sues for records related to dismissed prison superintendent.