Authorities initially deny having records on rest stop incident

Minnesota State Patrol and Duluth Police Department officials initially denied a request by the News Tribune for public information pertaining to an incident allegedly involving state Rep. Kerry Gauthier last week, saying the data wasn’t public.

Minnesota law requires certain information on calls for service to police to be made public — regardless of whether the call results in a criminal investigation — including the date and time of the call, agencies involved, the nature of the request of the activity being complained of, and witnesses to the incident, according to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

Both the Duluth Police Department and State Patrol said the agencies did not have “any public data responsive” to the News Tribune’s requests for information on Gauthier.

After the News Tribune informed the agencies of what records should be public under state law, the information was released, though only details on the time, date and place of the call, and that it was a response to a report of “suspicious activity.”

However, according to the Data Practices Act, the agencies should also release “a brief factual reconstruction of events associated with” a police response call.

State Patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske said the agency views that information as “criminal investigative data turned over to the Duluth Police Department.”

The city of Duluth also refused to release the detail. Deputy City Attorney Alison Lutterman said it should be up to the State Patrol to release the reconstruction of the event as that agency created the data.

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