INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Two men who were with a 20-year-old Indiana University student before she vanished in 2011 say in court documents that her parents are on a “fishing expedition” in their efforts to obtain evidence to use in a lawsuit against them.
Lauren Spierer’s parents are seeking private cellphone and academic records that have nothing to do with her disappearance, attorneys for Jason Rosenbaum and Corey Rossman say in court documents filed over the past four days in federal court in Indianapolis.
Robert and Mary Charlene Spierer’s attorneys have subpoenaed wireless phone service providers Verizon and AT&T, Indiana University and others for information regarding Rosenbaum and Rossman that is unrelated to the case, the men’s attorneys claim in separate briefs asking the court to quash the subpoenas.
The Spierers want cellphone records spanning 134 days before and after June 3, 2011, when their daughter disappeared following a night partying with friends in Bloomington, the men claim. They say the Spierers are also seeking both men’s academic and disciplinary records from Indiana University, which the men argue are private.
Rosenbaum and Rossman say the information the Spierers are seeking is irrelevant.
“It is clear that this is nothing more than a fishing expedition,” Rosenbaum’s attorneys said in a brief filed Monday. Rossman’s brief was filed Friday.
Spierer, a Greenburgh, N.Y., native, disappeared in June 2011. Her parents claim in their lawsuit that Rossman and Rosenbaum gave her alcohol and didn’t make sure she returned safely to her apartment, leading to her presumed death.
Rosenbaum and Rossman maintain that there is no evidence that Lauren Spierer is dead.
No criminal charges have ever been filed in Lauren Spierer’s disappearance, and the case remains open.
Jason Barclay, the attorney representing the Spierers, said Tuesday that the men’s claims have no merit.
The dispute comes about a month after a magistrate judge denied a request by the Spierers to seal evidence they deem too sensitive to made public.
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