City of Hays Expenses for Vogt Litigation

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the The Kansas Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

The City's legal fee expense records for the City of Hays v. Vogt litigation matter which the Supreme Court just ruled was prematurely filed in the Supreme Court. If possible, it would be helpful if these records could be broken down by which phase in the case they were expended.

In the Vogt case a criminal charge against a former police officer was dismissed in criminal court. The City didn't appeal. The defendant there then sued in federal district court. The District of Kansas dismissed both claims against the parent and claims against the City for violating a former police officer's constitutional rights. The Tenth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the claims against the City. Rather than simply settle this case, the City then inexplicably sought Supreme Court review. Today the Supreme Court rejected that petition as premature.

If there are search fees for this request, I request that they be waived, as I have no commercial purpose and am researching these documents for a piece I am writing for the news media on the issues in this case.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Matthew Hoppock