LAS VEGAS (AP) - The largest county in Nevada has released hundreds of unredacted child autopsies to the Las Vegas Review-Journal as part of an investigation into the county’s child protection division.
Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, released 653 child autopsy records on Thursday to the newspaper after four years of litigation and two orders from the Nevada Supreme Court, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Thursday.
“It’s shameful that it took this many court defeats to get Clark County to provide these important public records, but we’re relieved to finally have them in our possession,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said. “Let this wastefully long dispute stand as a case study for why severe civil penalties should be imposed on agencies that refuse to comply with the Nevada Public Records Act.”
The Review-Journal reported it intends to determine if child protection workers missed any abuse history prior to each child’s death and if the records show any failings in the autopsy process.
The newspaper’s general counsel Benjamin Zensen Lipman said “governments must be accountable for the people they serve, and this is a long overdue first step.”
Nevada Press Association Executive Director Richard Karpel said the lengthy legal battle emphasizes that the state’s public records laws do not go far enough to ensure access to the average resident.
“It’s fabulous the Review-Journal has the will and resources to fight these battles, but what about everyone else?” he said. “The fact that Clark County spent four years and over $80,000 to keep these autopsy reports hidden only begins to suggest the scale of its government-secrecy problem.”
County spokesperson Erik Pappa declined to comment.
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