Patti Englander Henning
From Judgepedia
Patti Englander Henning is a judge in the Florida Seventeenth Circuit Court.
Open records ruling
On November 4, Henning ruled in favor of the City of Hallandale Beach. The city had sued blogger Mike Butler after he submitted a request for records to the city under the Florida Sunshine Law[1][2]
Butler wanted a list of recipients of an email sent by Mayor Joy Cooper on February 17, 2009 from her personal America Online account. The subject line of the e-mail was "Mayor Cooper's Update." The e-mail included attachments to three columns written by Cooper for a weekly community newspaper addressing city policies. The e-mail included Cooper's city hall address and phone number. These characteristics of the e-mail led Butler to conclude that the e-mail was a public document, even though it had been sent on Cooper's personal email account.[1]
The city responded with a lawsuit against Butler. On November 4, 2009, Judge Henning ruled in favor of the city.[3]
Butler characterized the ruling from Henning as "shocking" and said that it runs counter to an advisory opinion issued in 2007 from Bill McCollum, Florida's attorney general, which says that e-mails from public officials "that are intended to communicate, perpetuate or formalize knowledge" are public records, regardless of whether or not they are sent using a public or governmental e-mail address.
Mayor Cooper said, "You're under the assumption that he's a good guy and he's the victim. But the victim is the city commission. I feel like my privacy has been raped."[1]
External links
References
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The Florida Project on Judgepedia
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