(La Porte, IN) - The former La Porte County Prosecutor has taken legal action to prevent his successor from gaining access to all of his emails during his final year in office. John Lake has filed a motion in LaPorte Circuit Court to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit brought about by current prosecutor Sean Fagan, who has the support of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
In his June 13th motion, Lake said he has an “unconditional right” under state law to intervene and wants to in order to argue his case as to why Fagan is not entitled to all of his emails during his last year as prosecutor. If the motion is granted, he will join the LaPorte County Commissioners as defendants in a lawsuit filed by LaPorte County Prosecutor Sean Fagan, who has the backing of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in the case.
In a letter to the commissioners about two months ago, Rokita demanded Fagan be given access to all of the emails, saying prosecutors are employees of the state and emails from their office are therefore state property. Lake, however, cites state statute and argues that he is allowed to keep confidential emails he described as “personal records” and prevent them from being “wrongfully disclosed.”
Fagan is suing the commissioners for rejecting on multiple occasions his request for access to all of the emails from Lake and four of his staff members in 2022. The emails sought originated from the prosecutor’s office and are held on a county government server.
In his lawsuit, Fagan insists he’s entitled under state statute to all of the emails because they’re owned by whoever is prosecutor. The lawsuit also claims the commissioners have no authority to deny access to emails from the office of prosecutor, who is a judicial officer of the state. The lawsuit also alleges failure to comply with a prosecutor’s request for emails from the office under Indiana law constitutes official misconduct, a level 6 felony offense. His position is supported by Rokita along with the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and the Indiana Public Access Counselor.
Fagan said he needs all of the emails from last year to close any gaps in information on cases he inherited from his predecessor.
According to the lawsuit, information possibly important to a case could come from a wide range of emails, containing anything from talks with victims and between deputy prosecutors discussing strategy in a criminal matter. A majority of the commissioners agreed to give him emails specific to criminal cases to protect the privacy of county employees. However, the lawsuit argues a prosecutor cannot know which emails to request unless all of them are opened to determine which ones might be helpful to a case.
Lake said personal records under state statute, though, are excluded from what a former prosecutor must transfer to a successor. He also claimed some of the emails sought by Fagan are protected from disclosure under attorney-client privilege and federal right to privacy laws. Likewise, he said he would be harmed if his personal records, in the form of emails including those of current and former employees in the prosecutor’s office, are disclosed to Fagan who allegedly doesn’t need such records in his capacity to uphold the law.
“These personal records do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory or other official duties of the Prosecuting Attorney,” Lake stated in his motion to intervene.
In his motion, Lake said not allowing him to intervene will impede his ability to protect the release of his personal records. He also revealed his intent to file a separate lawsuit to keep the emails confidential if the court were to grant Fagan “unfettered access” to them.
