Title: Welsh-Huggins v. Jefferson County Prosecutor's Office

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Welsh-Huggins v. Jefferson Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, Slip Opinion No. 2020-Ohio-5371.] 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an 
advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested to 
promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 
South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other 
formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before 
the opinion is published. 
 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2020-OHIO-5371 
WELSH-HUGGINS, APPELLANT, v.  JEFFERSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE, 
APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Welsh-Huggins v. Jefferson Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, Slip 
Opinion No. 2020-Ohio-5371.] 
Public Records Act—Security-record exception—To constitute an exception to the 
Public Records Act, record must be directly used to maintain the security of 
a public office—Judgment reversed. 
(No. 2019-1481—Submitted July 21, 2020—Decided November 24, 2020.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Jefferson County, 
No. 19 JE 0005, 2019-Ohio-3967. 
_________________ 
DONNELLY, J. 
{¶ 1} This case presents the issue of whether the video from an exterior 
courthouse security camera that captured the shooting of a judge as he was about 
to enter the courthouse through a nonpublic secured entry was a “security record” 
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under R.C. 149.433(A)(1) and therefore exempt from release as a public record 
under R.C. 149.433(B)(1).  In proceedings brought pursuant to R.C. 2743.75, the 
Court of Claims determined that competent evidence had not been presented to 
establish the security-record exemption and consequently ordered the video’s 
public release subject to certain redactions for undercover-officer confidentiality.  
The Seventh District Court of Appeals reversed that judgment, holding that the 
video was a security record that was exempt from public disclosure.  We agreed to 
consider whether the court of appeals correctly determined that the security-record 
exemption had been established by competent admissible evidence.  Based on our 
review of the record, we hold that the surveillance video at issue here did not fall 
squarely within the claimed exemption.  We accordingly reverse the judgment of 
the Seventh District Court of Appeals. 
I.  FACTS 
{¶ 2} On August 21, 2017, Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr., a judge of the Jefferson 
County Court of Common Pleas, was shot and seriously wounded by Nate 
Richmond near the courthouse.  Judge Bruzzese and a nearby probation officer 
returned fire, and Richmond was fatally wounded.  Judge Bruzzese survived his 
gunshot wounds after undergoing surgery and a lengthy hospital stay. 
{¶ 3} The Jefferson County Courthouse was equipped with a security-
camera system that recorded the shooting incident.  The camera was positioned 
outside the door where only courthouse personnel entered and exited the 
courthouse.1 
{¶ 4} Later that day, appellant, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, a reporter for the 
Associated Press, sent an email to appellee, the office of the prosecuting attorney 
in Jefferson County (“prosecutor”), requesting, as a public record under R.C. 
                                                 
1. A separate street-surveillance camera owned and operated by the city of Steubenville captured 
portions of the incident as well.  That video is not under the authority or control of the prosecutor 
and is not at issue here. 
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149.43, a copy of the courthouse video showing the shootings.  On August 22, 2017, 
the prosecutor, Jane M. Hanlin, denied Welsh-Huggins’s public-records request in 
writing, setting forth multiple claimed exemptions.  Welsh-Huggins’s subsequent 
requests for the video were likewise denied by the prosecutor, as were requests by 
the assistant general counsel of the Associated Press. 
{¶ 5} On May 7, 2018, Welsh-Huggins filed a public-records-access 
complaint in the Court of Claims pursuant to R.C. 2743.75. After unsuccessful 
mediation, the prosecutor filed an answer and motion to dismiss on September 11, 
2018. Among other things, the prosecutor asserted that the video was exempt from 
public-records release as a “security record” pursuant to R.C. 149.433(A)(1) and 
149.433(B)(1).  Supplemental responses were permitted pursuant to R.C. 
2743.75(E)(2). 
{¶ 6} On January 28, 2019, the special master filed his report and 
recommendation.  See 2019-Ohio-473.  Denying the prosecutor’s motion to 
dismiss, the special master determined that the prosecutor failed to meet her burden 
to prove that any portion of the video was exempt as a security record under R.C. 
149.433(A)(1).  The special master recommended that the prosecutor be ordered to 
provide Welsh-Huggins a redacted copy of the video in any available format that 
Welsh-Huggins requested.  On February 20, 2019, the Court of  Claims adopted the 
special master’s report over the prosecutor’s objections and ordered release of the 
video. 
{¶ 7} The prosecutor filed an appeal to the Seventh District Court of 
Appeals pursuant to R.C. 2743.75(G)(1).  The court of appeals reversed the 
judgment of the Court of Claims, holding that the video was exempt from disclosure 
as a security record under R.C. 149.433(A)(1) and R.C. 149.433(B)(1). 2019-Ohio-
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3967, 133 N.E.3d 550, ¶ 1, 32-44.2  The court of appeals found no error in requiring 
the prosecutor to prove that the video fell squarely within the claimed exemption.  
Id. at ¶ 50.  Having determined that the video was exempt from disclosure as a 
security record, the court of appeals held that the prosecutor’s remaining assigned 
errors were moot.  Id. at ¶ 45-46. 
{¶ 8} We accepted Welsh-Huggins’s appeal and agreed to consider the 
following proposition of law: “A public office must produce competent, admissible 
evidence to support an assertion of an exception to the Public Records Act.”  See 
157 Ohio St.3d 1534, 2020-Ohio-122, 137 N.E.3d 1207.  For the reasons that 
follow, we now reverse the judgment of the court of appeals. 
II.  ANALYSIS 
{¶ 9} This case provides us with the first opportunity to identify the legal 
standards and evidentiary burdens applicable to public-records-access proceedings 
that are brought pursuant to R.C. 2743.75, which became effective on September 
28, 2016.3  While the process established for proceedings under R.C. 2743.75 may 
be new, the fundamental legal principles that govern disputes over access to alleged 
public records are not. 
{¶ 10} We begin by recognizing once again the critical function served by 
the right of access to public records that is secured by R.C. 149.43.  “The Public 
Records Act reflects the state’s policy that ‘open government serves the public 
interest and our democratic system.’ ”  State ex rel. Morgan v. New Lexington, 112 
Ohio St.3d 33, 2006-Oho-6365, 857 N.E.2d 1208, ¶ 28, quoting State ex rel. Dann 
                                                 
2.  The court of appeals rejected the prosecutor’s contention that the video was also exempt from 
public-records release as an “infrastructure record” pursuant to R.C. 149.433(A) and (B)(2).  
Because the prosecutor did not appeal that ruling, that issue is not before us, and the appellate court’s 
determination as to that issue is now final. 
3.  We therefore reject the prosecutor’s assertion that the appeal should be dismissed as having been 
improvidently accepted because it presents “nothing more than a garden variety hearsay objection 
and a garden variety argument about the sufficiency of the undisputed evidence.”  As this case 
presents issues of “public and great general interest,” Article IV, Section 2(B)(2)(e), Ohio 
Constitution, we will proceed to consider it on the merits. 
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v. Taft, 109 Ohio St.3d 364, 2006-Ohio-1825, 848 N.E.2d 472, ¶ 20.  “Public 
records are one portal through which the people observe their government, ensuring 
its accountability, integrity, and equity while minimizing sovereign mischief and 
malfeasance.”  Kish v. Akron, 109 Ohio St.3d 162, 2006-Ohio-1244, 846 N.E.2d 
811, ¶ 16.  Ohio’s public-records statutes, “including those constituting Chapter 
149, reinforce the understanding that open access to government [records] is an 
integral entitlement of the people, to be preserved with vigilance and vigor.”  Id. at 
¶ 17.  Ohio’s Public Records Act “ ‘is construed liberally in favor of broad access, 
and any doubt is resolved in favor of disclosure of public records.’ ”  State ex rel. 
Cordell v. Paden, 156 Ohio St.3d 394, 2019-Ohio-1216, 128 N.E.3d 179, ¶ 7, 
quoting State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Hamilton Cty., 75 Ohio St.3d 374, 376, 
662 N.E.2d 334 (1996). 
{¶ 11} Until the 2016 enactment of R.C. 2743.75, an action in mandamus 
under R.C. 149.43(C) was the remedy to compel compliance with R.C. 149.43, 
Ohio’s Public Records Act.  See State ex rel. Quolke v. Strongsville City School 
Dist. Bd. of Edn., 142 Ohio St.3d 509, 2015-Ohio-1083, 33 N.E.3d 30, ¶ 18, citing 
State ex rel. Physicians Commt. for Responsible Medicine v. Ohio State Univ. Bd. 
of Trustees, 108 Ohio St.3d 288, 2006-Ohio-903, 843 N.E.2d 174, ¶ 6.  The 
enactment of R.C. 2743.75 created an alternative means to resolve public-records 
disputes. 
A.  Public-Records Dispute Proceedings under R.C. 2743.75 
{¶ 12} Recognizing that disputes over public-records requests can frustrate 
the law’s essential purpose, the General Assembly enacted R.C. 2743.75(A) “to 
provide for an expeditious and economical procedure that attempts to resolve 
disputes alleging a denial of access to public records” in violation of R.C. 
149.43(B).  It offers a forum for those who are schooled in the law as well as those 
who are not.  A person allegedly aggrieved by a denial of access to public records 
in violation of R.C. 149.43(B) may now file either a mandamus complaint pursuant 
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to R.C. 149.43(C)(1)(b) or a public-records-access complaint in the Court of Claims 
pursuant to R.C. 2743.75.  The person cannot pursue both remedies.  See R.C. 
149.43(C)(1), 2743.75(C)(1).  And except for a court that hears a mandamus action 
pursuant to R.C. 149.43, “the court of claims shall be the sole and exclusive 
authority in this state that adjudicates or resolves complaints based on alleged 
violations of that section.”  R.C. 2743.75(A). 
{¶ 13} In contrast to an action in mandamus that is generally subject to 
specialized pleading requirements under R.C. Chapter 2731, R.C. 2743.75(D)(1) 
permits the aggrieved person to file a complaint on a form prescribed by the clerk 
of the Court of Claims.  The person shall attach copies of the original records 
request and any written responses or other communications relating to the request 
from the public office or person responsible for public records.  Id.  Upon receipt 
of the complaint, the clerk of the Court of Claims is to assign a special master to 
examine the complaint.  R.C. 2743.75(D)(2).  After service of the complaint, the 
special master immediately shall refer the case to mediation services provided by 
the Court of Claims unless the special master determines that the case should not 
be referred to mediation.  R.C. 2743.75(E)(1). 
{¶ 14} If the dispute is not resolved through mediation, the public office or 
person responsible for public records shall file a response and, if applicable, a 
motion to dismiss the complaint within ten days of the termination of the mediation.  
R.C. 2743.75(E)(2).  No further motion or pleadings shall be accepted unless the 
special master directs in writing that a further motion or pleading be filed.  Id.  The 
special master shall not permit any discovery.  R.C. 2743.75(E)(3)(a).  The parties 
may attach supporting affidavits to their respective pleadings.  R.C. 
2743.75(E)(3)(b).  The special master may require either or both of the parties to 
submit additional information or documentation supported by affidavits.  R.C. 
2743.75(E)(3)(c). 
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{¶ 15} Not later than seven business days after receiving the response or 
motion to dismiss filed by the public officer or person responsible for public 
records, and unless extended for good cause by an additional seven days, “the 
special master shall submit to the court of claims a report and recommendation 
based on the ordinary application of statutory law and case law as they existed at 
the time of the filing of the complaint.”  R.C. 2743.75(F)(1).  The clerk of the Court 
of Claims shall send copies of the report and recommendation to each party not 
later than three days after the report and recommendation is filed.  R.C. 
2743.75(F)(2).  Either party may file specific objections to the report and 
recommendation within seven days of receipt.  Id. 
{¶ 16} If neither party files objections, the Court of Claims shall promptly 
issue a final order adopting the report and recommendation unless it determines that 
there is an error of law or other defect evident on the face of the report.  See R.C. 
2743.75(F)(2).  If either party timely objects, the other party may file a response 
within seven business days of receipt.  Id.  Within seven business days of filing the 
response, the Court of Claims shall issue a final order that adopts, modifies, or 
rejects the report and recommendation.  Id. 
{¶ 17} If the Court of Claims determines that the person was denied access 
to public records in violation of R.C. 149.43(B) and no appeal from that final order 
is taken, then the public office or person responsible for public records shall permit 
the aggrieved person to inspect or receive copies of the public records that the court 
ordered to be disclosed and is liable for the person’s filing fee and other costs 
associated with the action incurred by the aggrieved person, excluding attorney 
fees.  R.C. 2743.75(F)(3). 
{¶ 18} Any appeal from a final order of the Court of Claims under R.C 
2743.75 shall be taken to the court of appeals of the appellate district where the 
principal place of business of the public office from which the public record is 
requested is located.  R.C 2743.75(G)(1).  Such appeals are to be give precedence 
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over other pending matters to ensure that the court will reach a decision promptly.  
Id. 
B.  Legal Standards for Proceedings Brought to Enforce Ohio’s Public 
Records Act 
{¶ 19} R.C. 2743.75 does not expressly set forth specific legal standards as 
to the respective burden or burdens of proof that the parties bear in proceedings to 
enforce the Public Records Act beyond declaring that “the special master shall 
submit to the court of claims a report and recommendation based on the ordinary 
application of statutory law and case law as they existed at the time of the filing of 
the complaint.”  R.C. 2743.75(F)(1).  The lack of specific standards of proof 
articulated in the text of R.C 2743.75, however, does not mean that the such 
proceedings are without standards. 
{¶ 20} We begin by recalling that the “burden of proof” is a composite 
burden that “encompasses two different aspects of proof: the burden of going 
forward with evidence (or burden of production) and the burden of persuasion.”  
Chari v. Vore, 91 Ohio St.3d 323, 326, 744 N.E.2d 763 (2001).  See also Xenia v. 
Wallace, 37 Ohio St.3d 216, 219, 524 N.E.2d 889 (1988); State v. Robinson, 47 
Ohio St.2d 103, 107, 351 N.E.2d 88 (1976). 
{¶ 21} The “burden of production” in a civil case requires that the plaintiff 
produce sufficient evidence to support the case  and that the defendant produce 
sufficient evidence of any affirmative defenses.  Id. at 107.  The party having the 
burden on any given issue will lose on that issue as a matter of law if sufficient 
evidence is not produced.  Id. 
{¶ 22} By contrast, the “burden of persuasion” “refers to the risk * * * borne 
by a party if the jury finds that the evidence is in equilibrium.”  Id.  “In a civil case, 
the party with the burden of persuasion is to persuade the trier of fact by a 
preponderance of the evidence, or upon some issues, by clear and convincing 
evidence.”  Id.  The party with this burden will lose if he or she fails to persuade 
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the trier of fact that the alleged fact is true by such quantum of evidence as the law 
demands.  Id.  If the trier of fact finds itself in doubt, “it must decide the issue 
against the party having the burden of persuasion.”  Id. 
{¶ 23} With these basic legal precepts in mind, we now consider how they 
apply to actions that involve alleged denials of access to public records in violation 
of R.C. 149.43(B), beginning with mandamus proceedings brought pursuant to R.C. 
149.43(C)(1)(b). 
1.  The Burdens of Production and Persuasion in Public-Records Mandamus 
Actions 
{¶ 24} As previously noted, until R.C. 2743.75 was enacted in 2016, an 
action in mandamus was the appropriate remedy to compel compliance with R.C. 
149.43.  To obtain this extraordinary writ, the requester must demonstrate that the 
requester has a clear legal right to compel the public office or person responsible 
for public records to allow the requester to inspect or copy the public record and 
that the public office or person responsible for public records has a clear legal duty 
to do so.  State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Sage, 142 392, 2015-Ohio-974, 31 
N.E.3d 616, ¶ 10.  “[U]nlike in other mandamus cases, ‘[requesters] in public 
records cases need not establish the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary 
course of law.’ ”  State ex rel. Caster v. Columbus, 151 Ohio St.3d 425, 2016-Ohio-
8394, 89 N.E.3d 598, ¶ 15, quoting State ex rel. Data Trace Information Servs., 
L.L.C. v. Cuyahoga Cty. Fiscal Officer, 131 Ohio St.3d 255, 2012-Ohio-753, 963 
N.E.2d 1288, ¶ 25. 
{¶ 25} R.C. 149.43(B)(1) establishes a clear legal right to request that 
identifiable public records be made available for inspection or copying.  “Public 
record” means any record that is kept by a public office unless it falls squarely 
within a specific statutory exemption.  See R.C. 149.43(A)(1).  R.C. 149.43 imposes 
on public offices and records custodians a corresponding clear legal duty to make 
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a requested public record available for inspection or copying unless it falls squarely 
within a specific statutory exemption. Id. 
{¶ 26} In a mandamus-enforcement action, the requester’s basic burden of 
production is to plead and prove facts showing that he or she requested a public 
record pursuant to R.C. 149.43(B)(1) and that the public office or records custodian 
did not make the record available.  The burden of persuasion is on the requester to 
establish entitlement to the extraordinary writ by clear and convincing evidence.  
See State ex rel. Kesterson v. Kent State Univ., 156 Ohio St.3d 13, 2018-Ohio-5108, 
123 N.E.3d 887, ¶ 12; State ex rel. McCaffrey v. Mahoning Cty. Prosecutor’s 
Office, 133 Ohio St.3d 139, 2012-Ohio-4246, 976 N.E.2d 877, ¶ 16. 
{¶ 27} If a public office or person responsible for public records withholds 
a record on the basis of a statutory exception, the “burden of production” is on the 
public office or records custodian to plead and prove facts clearly establishing the 
applicability of the exemption.  In State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Jones-Kelly, 
118 Ohio St.3d 81, 2008-Ohio-1770, 886 N.E.2d 206, paragraph two of the 
syllabus, we held that exceptions to disclosure under the Public Records Act, R.C. 
149.43, “are strictly construed against the public-records custodian, and the 
custodian has the burden to establish the applicability of an exception.”  We further 
stated that “[a] custodian does not meet this burden if it has not proven that the 
requested records fall squarely within the exception.”  Id., following State ex rel. 
Carr v. Akron, 112 Ohio St.3d 351, 2006-Ohio-6714, 859 N.E.2d 948, ¶ 30. 
{¶ 28} In State ex rel. Natl. Broadcasting. Co., Inc. v. Cleveland, 38 Ohio 
St.3d 79, 83, 526 N.E.2d 786 (1988), we recognized several reasons for placing this 
burden of production on the public office or records custodian. First, unlike a party 
requesting disclosure, the custodian of the record has knowledge of the contents of 
the record.  Second, since Ohio law requires the party asserting an exception to 
prove the facts warranting the exception, placing the burden of proof on the 
government is consistent with that law.  Third, requiring the government to have 
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the burden of proof is also consistent with this court’s strict construction of the 
exceptions of R.C. 149.43 and resolution of doubt in favor of disclosure. 
{¶ 29} When the government’s asserted exemption is challenged, “the court 
must make an individualized scrutiny of the records in question.  If the court finds 
that [the] records contain excepted information, this information must be redacted 
and any remaining information must be released.”   Id. at paragraph four of the 
syllabus.  See also State ex rel. Warren Newspapers, Inc. v. Hutson, 70 Ohio St.3d 
619, 625, 640 N.E.2d 174 (1994) (“To the extent that respondents still assert 
exemptions, an individualized scrutiny of the subject records and an in camera 
inspection is required pursuant to State ex rel. Natl. Broadcasting Co., supra, at 
paragraph four of the syllabus”). 
{¶ 30} When a public office or records custodian relies on an exemption the 
application of which is not apparent just from the record itself, the office must 
provide evidence to support the applicability of the exemption.  See, e.g., State ex 
rel. Besser v. Ohio State Univ., 89 Ohio St.3d 396, 401-402, 732 N.E.2d 373 (2000) 
(trade-secret exemption required evidence to support its application).  Conclusory 
statements in an affidavit that are not supported by evidence are not sufficient 
evidence to establish the exemption’s applicability.  Id. at 401. 
{¶ 31} Having reviewed the legal standards applicable to mandamus-
enforcement actions, we now consider the legal standards that are applicable to 
public-records-access proceedings under R.C. 2743.75. 
2.  The Burdens of Production and Persuasion in Public-Records-Access Actions 
under R.C. 2743.75 
{¶ 32} While a public-records-access proceeding brought pursuant R.C. 
2743.75 may be less formalistic than a mandamus proceeding brought pursuant to 
R.C. 149.43(C), the nature of the relief sought—namely, access to a public record 
that was requested and allegedly withheld in violation of R.C 149.43(B)(1)—is 
functionally the same.  For that reason, the direction in R.C. 2743.75(F)(1) for “the 
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ordinary application of statutory law and case law as they existed at the time of the 
filing of the complaint” suggests that public-records-access proceedings in the 
Court of Claims be consistent with the standards that are applicable to mandamus-
enforcement actions. 
{¶ 33} In that respect, the complainant’s “burden of production” is to plead 
and prove facts showing that the requester sought an identifiable public record 
pursuant to R.C. 149.43(B)(1) and that the public office or records custodian did 
not make the record available.  In the case before us, there is no dispute that Welsh-
Huggins made a request for public records under R.C. 149.43 and that the 
prosecutor denied his request.  In denying the prosecutor’s motion to dismiss, the 
special master determined that Welsh-Huggins’s complaint “sets forth factual 
allegations and supporting correspondence that if proven entitles him to a finding 
of denial of access in violation of R.C. 149.43(B) and an order to produce the 
record.”  2019-Ohio-473 at ¶ 4.  The prosecutor does not seriously dispute that 
Welsh-Huggins satisfied this burden of production.4 
{¶ 34} The “burden of persuasion” was at all times on Welsh-Huggins to 
prove his right to relief under R.C. 2743.75 by the requisite quantum of evidence.  
The special master found, as in mandamus actions, that the requester must establish 
entitlement to relief by clear and convincing evidence.  2019-Ohio-473 at ¶ 6.  
Welsh-Huggins does not dispute that this was the quantum of evidence necessary 
for him to carry his burden of persuasion.  We therefore assume without deciding 
that his right to obtain relief under R.C. 2743.75 for the denial of access to public 
records in violation of R.C. 149.43(B) required clear and convincing evidence. 
                                                 
4.  Contrary to the prosecutor’s assertion at oral argument, the requester is not required to provide a 
reason for the request.  Indeed, under R.C. 149.43(B)(4), no public office or person responsible for 
public records may limit or condition the availability of public records by requiring disclosure of 
the intended use of the requested public record unless specifically required or authorized by state or 
federal law or in accordance with R.C. 149.43(B).  As we said in State ex rel. Consumer News 
Servs., Inc. v. Worthington City Bd. of Edn., 97 Ohio St.3d 58, 2002-Ohio-5311, 776 N.E.2d 82,  
¶ 45, the requester’s “purpose in requesting to inspect and copy public records is irrelevant.” 
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{¶ 35} If the public office or person responsible for public records refuses 
to release the requested record on the basis of a statutory exemption, its “burden of 
production” in the R.C. 2743.75 proceeding is to plead and prove facts establishing 
that the requested record falls squarely within the exemption.  See State ex rel. 
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Jones-Kelly, 118 Ohio St.3d 81, 2008-Ohio-1770, 886 
N.E.2d 206, paragraph two of the syllabus.  And if the exemption upon which the 
public office relies is not obviously apparent and manifest just from the content of 
the record itself, factual evidence to establish the application of that exemption is 
necessary.  See State ex rel. Besser, 89 Ohio St.3d at 402, 732 N.E.2d 373.  
Unsupported conclusory statements in an affidavit are insufficient. 
{¶ 36} Before we address in this case whether the prosecutor proved that 
the requested video recording fell squarely within the security-record exemption, 
we will briefly address the applicable standard of appellate review for such 
proceedings. 
C.  Appellate Standard of Review 
{¶ 37} Whether a particular record is by statute exempt from disclosure as 
a public record fundamentally presents an issue of law, although the application of 
the statutory exemption will necessarily depend on its factual application to the 
record in question.  When an issue presents such a mixed question of law and fact, 
a reviewing court will independently review the legal question de novo but will 
defer to the trial court’s underlying factual findings, reviewing them only for clear 
error.  See Gembarski v. PartsSource, Inc., 157 Ohio St.3d 255, 2019-Ohio-3231, 
134 N,E,3d 1175, ¶ 26; State v. Gillard, 78 Ohio St.3d 548, 552, 679 N.E.2d 276 
(1997). 
{¶ 38} In prior appeals of mandamus public-records rulings, we have used 
this standard, in substance if not in name, by reviewing independently the disputed 
records and associated evidence to ascertain whether the records qualified for the 
claimed exemption.  For instance, in State ex rel. Rocker v. Guernsey Cty. Sheriff’s 
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Office, 126 Ohio St.3d 224, 2010-Ohio-3288, 932 N.E.2d 327, the court of appeals, 
citing the R.C. 149.43(A)(2)(a) exception, denied the application for a writ of 
mandamus to compel the sheriff to release investigative records relating to an 
uncharged suspect.  We independently reviewed the sealed investigative records 
and determined that some of the withheld records were subject to disclosure 
because, contrary to the appellate court’s determination, not every part was 
inextricably intertwined with the suspect’s identity.  Id. at ¶ 14.  We therefore 
reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded the case to that court 
to order the disclosure of redacted records.  Id. at ¶ 15.  See also State ex rel. O’Shea 
& Assocs. Co. L.P.A. v. Cuyahoga Metro. Hous. Auth., 131 Ohio St.3d 149, 2012-
Ohio-115, 962 N.E.2d 297, ¶ 37-44 (independently reviewing and rejecting claimed 
exemptions).  This independent review is consistent with our precedent requiring 
individualized scrutiny of records when a claimed exemption has been challenged.  
State ex rel. Natl. Broadcasting Co., Inc., 38 Ohio St.3d 79, 526 N.E.2d 786, at 
paragraph four of the syllabus. 
{¶ 39} In the specific context of public-records-access appeals filed 
pursuant to R.C. 2743.75(G)(1), Ohio’s courts of appeals have applied the standard 
of appellate review applicable to such mixed questions of law and fact, reviewing 
the application of a claimed exemption de novo while according due deference to 
the trial court’s factual determinations.  See Hurt v. Liberty Twp., 2017-Ohio-7820, 
97 N.E.3d 1153, ¶ 31-33; Sheil v. Horton, 2018-Ohio-5240, 117 N.E.3d 194, ¶ 20. 
{¶ 40} In the case before us, the appellate court did not articulate its 
standard of appellate review.  It nevertheless appears to have independently 
reviewed the video and statements submitted by the prosecutor before determining 
that, contrary to the Court of Claims determination, the video recording was exempt 
as a “security record.” 
{¶ 41} We now proceed to consider the merits of the parties’ respective 
contentions. 
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D.  The Security-Record Exemption 
{¶ 42} Pursuant to R.C. 149.433(B)(1), a security record kept by a public 
office is not a public record under R.C. 149.43 and is not subject to mandatory 
release or disclosure under that section.  The prosecutor argues that the video fits 
the security-record definition found in R.C. 149.433(A)(1): “Any record that 
contains information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a 
public office against attack, interference, or sabotage.” 
{¶ 43} The Court of Claims determined that the prosecutor had not shown, 
either by the content of the video alone or by the prosecutor’s affidavits, that the 
video met this definition.  Reversing that judgment, the court of appeals held that 
the video was a security record, although it is unclear whether it based that 
judgment on the video alone or on the prosecutor’s affidavits.  2019-Ohio-3967, 
133 N.E.3d 550, at ¶ 40-42.  Despite the lack of clarity in the appellate court’s 
opinion and analysis, we will separately address whether its judgment can be 
sustained based on the content of the video alone or based also on the evidence 
provided by the prosecutor in her affidavits. 
1.  Video Content 
{¶ 44} Maintaining that the security-record nature of the video is readily 
apparent just by viewing it, the prosecutor contends that the court of appeals agreed 
when it declared: “The video shows the blind spots and places an attacker could 
take cover and go undetected.  The video also shows the emergency response 
means, methods, and procedures.”   2019-Ohio-3967, 133 N.E.3d 550, at ¶ 40. 
{¶ 45} But that statement does not fairly represent the appellate court’s 
opinion because the court of appeals was in fact reciting what the prosecutor’s 
affidavit claimed were “the technical capabilities of the video security system, 
including the ability to zoom, rotate and isolate certain areas.”  Id.  Irrespective of 
whether the court of appeals based its judgment on the content of the video alone 
or on the prosecutor’s narrative description of the video’s content, however, the 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
16 
video does not by itself establish that it contains information directly used for 
protecting or maintaining the security of a public office against attack, interference, 
or sabotage. 
{¶ 46} State ex rel. Rogers v. Dept. of Rehab. & Corr., 155 Ohio St.3d 545, 
2018-Ohio-5111, 122 N.E.3d 1208, is instructive in that we considered and rejected 
a similar argument.  In that case, Rogers requested a prison’s security-camera video 
related to a use-of-force incident.  The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and 
Correction (“DRC”) denied the request, contending in part that the video was 
exempt as a security record as shown by the content of the video itself.  The DRC 
contended that the captured content revealed the capabilities and vulnerabilities of 
the DRC security protocols and that “ ‘dissemination of the areas of Ohio prisons 
that are not capable of being monitored by security video would allow nefarious 
acts of violence to occur outside the security camera’s scope.’ ”   Id. at ¶ 16, quoting 
the DRC.  We rejected the DRC’s contention, finding that “bare allegations” of the 
exemption’s applicability “failed to explain how the video recording at issue 
actually constitutes ‘information directly used for protecting or maintaining the 
security of a public office against attack, interference, or sabotage.’ ”  Id. at ¶ 19, 
quoting R.C. 149.433(A)(1). 
{¶ 47} Just as the DRC argued in Rogers that the content of the video, 
including the emergency response to the incident, by itself showed that it was a 
security record, the prosecutor and the court of appeals relied on the content of the 
video  to conclude that it was a security record.  But as was the case in Rogers, 
neither the prosecutor nor the court of appeals explains how the content of this 
video contains “information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security 
of a public office against attack, interference, or sabotage.”  R.C. 149.433(A)(1).  
See also State ex rel. Miller v. Pinkney, 149 Ohio St.3d 662, 2017-Ohio-1335, 77 
N.E.3d 915, ¶ 4 (content of incident reports in which a local county official was 
identified as the reportee, complainant, or victim did not establish that they were 
January Term, 2020 
 
17 
security records and thus, they were subject to release with exempt information 
redacted). 
{¶ 48} To be sure, some public-records exemptions may be obvious just 
from the record’s content.  In McDougald v. Greene, ___ Ohio St.3d ___, 2020-
Ohio-4268, ___ N.E.3d ___, ¶ 9, we held that a prison’s most recent shift-
assignment duty rosters qualified as security records.  The duty rosters detailed “the 
identity and location of guards posted throughout the prison,” id., which obviously 
was “information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public 
office against attack, interference, or sabotage,” R.C. 149.433(A)(1).  Likewise, 
because “information about the movements of a prison’s guards would be used by 
the prison to ensure the security of the facility,” (emphasis sic) McDougald at ¶ 9, 
that was “information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a 
public office against attack, interference, or sabotage,”  R.C. 149.433(A)(1). 
{¶ 49} The shift-assignment duty rosters that were at issue in McDougald 
are readily distinguishable from the video at issue in Rogers and in this case, which 
also captured one event.  In McDougald, the ongoing use of the duty rosters to 
protect a public office from attack for security purposes was self-evident.  In the 
latter, the actual use of the video to protect the public from attack was not self-
evident. 
{¶ 50} If the applicability of a public-records exemption is not readily 
apparent just from the record’s content, evidence providing specific factual support 
that goes beyond mere conclusory statements in an affidavit is required to show 
that the record sought falls squarely within the prescribed exception.  See State ex 
rel. Besser, 89 Ohio St.3d at 400-402, 732 N.E.2d 373.  We turn then to the 
evidence presented by the prosecutor in this case. 
2.  Prosecutor’s Evidence 
{¶ 51} Unless it is otherwise obvious from the content of the record, the 
proponent invoking the security-record exemption under R.C. 149.433(A)(1) must 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
18 
provide evidence establishing that the record clearly contains information directly 
used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public office against attack, 
interference, or sabotage. 
{¶ 52} Thus, in State ex rel. Plunderbund Media, L.L.C. v. Born, 141 Ohio 
St.3d 422, 2014-Ohio-3679, 25 N.E.3d 988, we held that records documenting 
threats against the governor were exempt as security records based on the 
testimonial evidence from subject-matter experts.  The testimony showed that the 
records contained information directly used for tactically protecting or maintaining 
the security of a public office, which includes its officers and employees, against 
attack, interference, or sabotage.  Id. at ¶ 29-30.  See also State ex rel. Ohio 
Republican Party v. Fitzgerald, 145 Ohio St.3d 92, 2015-Ohio-5056, 47 N.E.3d 
124, ¶ 3 (records of key-card-swipe data documenting when local county official 
who was the subject of verified threats entered and exited county parking facilities 
and buildings were directly used to protect or maintain security of a public office 
and were exempt as security records when originally requested, although the 
exemption expired once official left office, new county headquarters were 
established, former county headquarters were demolished, and key-card-swipe data 
were separately released to the media). 
{¶ 53} As it relates specifically to the case at hand, Welsh-Huggins’s 
proposition of law asserts that “[a] public office must produce competent, 
admissible evidence to support an assertion of an exception to the Public Records 
Act.”  The prosecutor does not take issue with this legal proposition as stated, 
though she does dispute the suggestion that she failed to present competent, 
admissible evidence to support the asserted “security-record” exemption.  We agree 
that unless it is obvious from the record itself, in a public-records-access proceeding 
brought pursuant to R.C. 2743.75, a public office or records custodian asserting a 
statutory exemption must produce competent, admissible evidence to support the 
asserted exemption. 
January Term, 2020 
 
19 
{¶ 54} Acknowledging that the records custodian in a R.C. 2743.75 
proceeding bears the burden of establishing the applicability of an exception to 
disclosure under the Public Records Act, the prosecutor argues that “the Requester 
first has the burden of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that he is entitled 
to that which he requests.”  The prosecutor’s argument wrongly suggests that her 
responding burden of production does not arise unless and until the requester has 
established its burden of persuasion.  Contrary to the prosecutor’s contention, the 
assertion of a statutory exemption activates the corresponding burden of production 
to prove facts establishing the clear applicability of the exemption.  The requester’s 
burden of persuasion continues throughout the course of the proceeding but does 
not in any way relieve the public office or records custodian from having to prove 
the factual basis of the exemption on which it relies.  The requester does not have 
to win its case before the public office has to make its case. 
{¶ 55} The question then is whether the prosecutor proved that the video 
was a security record under R.C. 149.433(A)(1).  The prosecutor points to the 
affidavits that she submitted in the Court of Claims proceedings.  In the affidavit 
submitted with her initial supplemental response, she asserted in conclusory fashion 
that the video was directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a 
public office, including its officers and employees.  But the prosecutor’s response 
did not explain how the video was  used for protecting or maintaining the security 
of a public office against attack, interference, or sabotage. 
{¶ 56} According to the prosecutor, divulging the video and its digital 
player software would reveal the location and configuration of the camera to its 
surroundings; the technical capabilities of the video security system; the panorama 
of the area captured by the video camera; the ability to view certain areas from 
different angles; the ability to zoom, rotate, and isolate certain areas and subjects; 
computerized optical enhancement features (such as “fish eye”); and the emergency 
response means, methods, and procedures used by courthouse security personnel 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
20 
and other law-enforcement agencies.  Disclosing that information would, in the 
prosecutor’s view, educate future would-be attackers to courthouse security plans 
and potential weaknesses.  The prosecutor acknowledged that to her knowledge, 
there had been no use of the video in any civil litigation, law-enforcement training, 
or other official purpose; the video had not been provided to any other agency; and 
the video had been viewed by her as part of the criminal investigation of the 
shooting of Judge Bruzzese. 
{¶ 57} The concerns expressed by the prosecutor if the video were disclosed 
to the public are not appreciably different from those that were expressed by the 
DRC in State ex rel. Rogers, 155 Ohio St.3d 545, 2018-Ohio-5111, 122 N.E.3d 
1208.  In both instances, the security-camera video captured a single incident in or 
near a public office and the emergency response to that incident.  Regardless of 
whatever perceived limitations or vulnerabilities the prosecutor believes might be 
revealed by public viewing of the video, R.C. 149.433(A)(1) dictates that a record’s  
security-record status is determined by the public office’s actual use of the record 
for the stated purposes, not by a public-records requester’s potential use or misuse 
of the record. 
{¶ 58} Moreover, the video here captured an incident and emergency 
response that occurred outside the public office on a public street.  The incident and 
emergency response would have been and perhaps was observed by any number of 
bystanders, any of whom could likely have recorded at least some portion of these 
events on ubiquitous personal-communication devices.  That this incident and 
response were readily observable to the public would seemingly undermine the 
concern that the video  might disclose something that an eyewitness would not have 
seen. 
{¶ 59} The second affidavit submitted by the prosecutor in her second 
supplemental response similarly failed to explain how the video qualified for 
exemption under R.C. 149.433(A)(1).  The unredacted version filed under seal 
January Term, 2020 
 
21 
included a narrative description of the content of the recording by sequential video 
segments, at times identifying what a viewer could or could not see.  The 
emergency response procedures that were actually followed by courthouse security 
personnel and other law-enforcement officers during this incident were said to be 
as set forth in the narrative description of the video content.  The prosecutor 
additionally provided other courthouse security documents and standards and relied 
on the video content to identify the weaponry employed by the responding security 
personnel.  Again, absent from this production was any explanation of how this 
video contained information that was “directly used for protecting or maintaining 
the security of a public office against attack, interference, or sabotage.”  R.C. 
149.433(A)(1). 
{¶ 60} The prosecutor’s third affidavit, filed with the third supplemental 
response, responded to the special master’s request for certain technical 
information concerning the video, including its playback capabilities and its ability 
to be exported as a file without revealing any configuration functionality.  The 
prosecutor there identified those technical matters for which she had personal 
knowledge and those technical matters for which she had either a layman’s 
understanding or no technical knowledge at all, relying in several instances on 
information provided to her by the county’s information and technology 
coordinator.  The prosecutor reiterated her previously expressed concerns that 
disclosure of the video would reveal perceived vulnerabilities in courthouse 
security. 
{¶ 61} On this point, the court of appeals stated, “Although the affidavit is 
based on hearsay and is not from an office that provides security to the courthouse, 
[Welsh-Huggins] did not object to the affidavit on that basis.  Therefore, the 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
22 
affidavit provides a basis for holding the video is a security record.”  2019-Ohio-
3967, 133 N.E.3d 550, at ¶ 40.5      
{¶ 62} The hearsay evidence of which the court of appeals said Welsh-
Huggins did not object, however, was utterly beside the point.  It concerned 
technical issues concerning the ability to export and view the video for which the 
prosecutor lacked knowledge.  The ability to export or view the video does not 
determine whether it is a security record as defined under R.C. 149.433(A)(1).  As 
we have indicated, that is determined by its actual use by the public office.  In that 
respect, the court of appeals should have been more concerned with the evidentiary 
law of relevance than that of hearsay. 
{¶ 63} The prosecutor states that her “undisputed evidence, which was 
absolutely unopposed by any objection or contrary evidence, established, at the 
least, a probability that the subject video is a security record.”  But under our 
precedent, it is not enough to say that a record is probably within a statutorily 
prescribed exemption: the public office or records custodian must show “that the 
requested record falls squarely within the exemption.”  State ex rel. Cincinnati 
Enquirer v. Jones-Kelly, 118 Ohio St.3d 81, 2008-Ohio-1770, 888 N.E.2d 206, at 
paragraph two of the syllabus.  And we must “construe R.C. 149.43 liberally in 
favor of broad access and resolve any doubt in favor of disclosure.”  State ex rel. 
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Ohio Dept. of Pub. Safety, 148 Ohio St.3d 433, 2016-Ohio-
7987, 71 N.E.3d 258, at ¶ 28. 
{¶ 64} In this case, however, the court of appeals failed to justify its 
determination that the video fell squarely within the security-records exemption.  
As indicated previously, the court of appeals, “[c]onsidering the information in the 
affidavit”—without specifying which of the prosecutor’s three affidavits—held that 
                                                 
5. We note that some of the prosecutor’s evidence in this case was submitted under seal.  Having 
no knowledge of its contents, Welsh-Huggins plainly would not have been in any position to 
object to that evidence.   
January Term, 2020 
 
23 
the video was a security record.  2019-Ohio-3967, 133 N.E.3d 550, ¶ 41.  But the 
appellate court’s opinion does not specifically reflect any determination by that 
court that it was a security record as defined under R.C. 149.433(A)(1), i.e., that it 
was “directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public office 
against attack, interference, or sabotage.”  Indeed, that definitional test does not 
appear anywhere in the appellate court’s discussion of the evidence.  Id. at ¶ 40-42. 
{¶ 65} Regardless of whether the court of appeals relied upon the content 
of the video alone or the prosecutor’s description of what it showed, including the 
supposed “vulnerabilities of the security measures and the response to 
emergencies,” id. at ¶ 40, what the video shows does not prove that the video 
footage was directly used to protect or maintain the security of the public office.  
Just as the “capabilities and vulnerabilities” of the DRC prison-security protocols 
and its “plan of attack and security features” to respond to security threats in State 
ex rel. Rogers, 155 Ohio St.3d 545, 2018-Ohio-5111, 122 N.E.2d 1208, ¶ 17, 16, 
failed to explain how the video recording of the use-of-force incident was 
information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public 
office, the supposed capabilities and vulnerabilities of the Jefferson County 
Courthouse security protocols, and the court’s plan of attack and security measures 
to respond to security threats likewise do not prove how the video at issue here 
contained information that was directly used to protect or maintain the security of 
this public office. 
{¶ 66} The court of appeals here went even further, declaring that “[t]he 
security aspect of a response to an emergency situation is just as important as the 
security to prevent an actual incident” and that minor incidents can be “used to draw 
people out of buildings using the response as means to make individuals or places 
vulnerable.  That is why responses to incidents are a security record.  The manner 
in which law enforcement and emergency personnel respond to incidents at a public 
office are security records.”  2019-Ohio-3967, 133 N.E.3d 550, at ¶ 42. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
24 
{¶ 67} Aside from the fact that there was no evidence presented here to 
substantiate that broad assertion, it still does not answer how this video was directly 
used to protect or maintain the security of the public office.  Moreover, the appellate 
court’s reference to vulnerability assessments or emergency-response plans would 
appear to have been drawn from the security-record definitional standard applicable 
to acts of terrorism, R.C. 149.433(A)(2)(a)—an exemption that the prosecutor here 
did not invoke.  By failing to specify the statutory basis for holding that the video 
footage here was a security record and instead offering a nonspecific rationale that 
appears to be drawn more from a statutory exemption that was never even at issue, 
the appellate court’s opinion does not provide a basis for that court to substitute its 
judgment for that of the Court of Claims. 
{¶ 68} We do not question the sincerity of the prosecutor’s concerns that a 
public office’s security measures and surveillance techniques are of critical 
importance or that disclosing information used to protect or maintain public office 
security against attack, interference, or sabotage arguably could diminish the 
effectiveness of those security measures and techniques.  But “ ‘the General 
Assembly is the ultimate arbiter of public policy,’ ” State ex rel. WBNS TV, Inc. v. 
Dues, 101 Ohio St.3d 406, 2004-Ohio-1497, 805 N.E.2d 1116, ¶ 37, quoting State 
ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer, Div. of Gannett Satellite Info. Network, Inc. v. Dupuis, 
98 Ohio St.3d 126, 2002-Ohio-7041, 781 N.E.2d 163, ¶ 21.  By “ ‘enumerating 
very narrow, specific exceptions to the public-records statute, the General 
Assembly has already weighed and balanced the competing public policy 
considerations between the public’s right to know how its [government] agencies 
make decisions and the potential harm, inconvenience or burden imposed on the 
agency by disclosure.’ ”  State ex rel. WBNS TV, Inc. at ¶ 36, quoting State ex rel. 
James v. Ohio State Univ., 70 Ohio St.3d 168, 172, 637 N.E.2d 911 (1994). 
{¶ 69} Under R.C. 149.433(A)(1), a record’s status as a security record is 
determined by the public office’s actual use of the information.  It is not determined 
January Term, 2020 
 
25 
by a public requester’s potential use or misuse of the information.  The court of 
appeals here erred by holding that the video was a security record without any basis 
for finding that the footage contained information that was “directly used for 
protecting or maintaining the security of a public office against attack, interference, 
or sabotage.”  R.C. 149.33(A)(1).  We accordingly reverse the judgment of the court 
of appeals. 
E.  Issues Unresolved in the Court of Appeals 
{¶ 70} Having determined that the video was exempt from disclosure as a 
security record, the court of appeals declined to address the prosecutor’s eighth and 
ninth assignments of error, finding that they were moot.  2019-Ohio-3967, 133 
N.E.23d 550, at ¶ 45-46.  Because we are reversing the judgment of the court of 
appeals, we would ordinarily remand the case to address these issues.  We decline 
to do so here. 
{¶ 71} This case concerns a public-records request that was made over three 
years ago on August 21, 2017.  And despite R.C. 2743.75’s stated purpose of  
providing “for an expeditious and economical procedure” to resolve public-records 
access disputes, R.C. 2743.75(A), this case has been in suit since 2018, prolonged 
in part by the special master’s repeated requests for additional material information 
from the prosecutor.  Because the unaddressed issues are not complicated and 
further delays will serve only to frustrate the purpose of R.C. 2743.75, we will 
proceed to address here the prosecutor’s eighth and ninth assignments of error. 
{¶ 72} After receiving the prosecutor’s third supplemental response 
addressing the special master’s queries over certain technical information 
concerning the video, including its playback capabilities and its ability to be 
exported as a file without revealing any configuration functionality, the Court of 
Claims ordered the prosecutor to redact from the video the image of any peace 
officer who was authorized to have been working undercover or in plain clothes at 
the time the request was made.  The prosecutor’s eighth assignment of error 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
26 
contended that the trial court “erroneously and unlawfully required the Respondent 
to perform a service, by which the Respondent would have to create a new record, 
contrary to law.”  (Emphasis sic.)  The prosecutor’s ninth assignment of error 
contended that the trial court “erroneously and unlawfully require the Respondent 
to perform a service, by which the Respondent would have to compile information 
from an existing record in order to create a new record, contrary to law.”  (Emphasis 
sic.)  These assignments of error lack merit. 
{¶ 73} R.C. 149.43(B)(1) provides for redactions so that nonexempt 
portions of a public record are made available to the public: “If a public record 
contains information that is exempt from the duty to permit public inspection or to 
copy the public record, the public office or the person responsible for the public 
record shall make available all of the information within the public record that is 
not exempt.”  If a video is not exempt in its entirety, those portions that are exempt 
may be withheld by redaction, but the remainder must be released.  See, e.g., State 
ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Ohio Dept. of Pub. Safety, 148 Ohio St.3d 433, 2016-
Ohio-7987, 71 N.E.3d 258, ¶ 45-50. 
{¶ 74} As to the prosecutor’s contention that the trial court’s order 
unlawfully requires it to create a new record, R.C. 149.43(B)(6) requires a public 
office to permit the requester  
 
to choose to have the pubic record duplicated * * * upon the same 
medium upon which the public office or person responsible for the 
public record keeps it, or upon any other medium upon which the 
public office or person responsible for the public record determines 
that it reasonably can be duplicated as an integral part of the normal 
operations of the public office or person responsible for the public 
record. 
 
January Term, 2020 
 
27 
If a record containing exempt and nonexempt information can, through reasonable 
computer programming, produce the requested output, the record is deemed to 
already exist for purposes of R.C. 149.43.  See State ex rel. Scanlon v. Deters, 45 
Ohio St.3d 376, 379, 544 N.E.2d 680 (1989), overruled on other grounds, State ex 
rel. Steckman v. Jackson, 70 Ohio St.3d 420, 426-427, 639 N.E.2d 83 (1994), 
overruled on other grounds, State ex rel. Caster, 151 Ohio St.3d 425, 2016-Ohio- 
8394, 89 N.E.3d 598, ¶ 47. 
{¶ 75} Because the video here clearly existed, the order to duplicate it with 
redactions that would conceal exempt information and disclose nonexempt 
information did not require the prosecutor to create a new record.  The Court of 
Claims accordingly did not err by ordering that the video be made available subject 
to limited redactions for peace officer safety. 
III.  CONCLUSION 
{¶ 76} A primary purpose of Ohio’s public-records act is to enable the 
public to see how our government agencies work, whether good or bad.  The 
General Assembly has set the parameters for this civic right.  Our duty is to ensure 
that the law is enforced faithfully.  If the video footage of this incident would reveal 
vulnerabilities in courthouse security in 2017—which we doubt—the answer is not 
to conceal them in 2020 but rather to ensure that they have been identified and 
corrected. 
{¶ 77} We therefore hold that in a public-records-access proceeding 
brought pursuant to R.C. 2743.75, a public office or records custodian asserting a 
statutory exemption must produce competent, admissible evidence to support the 
asserted exemption unless the application of the exemption is clearly obvious from 
the record itself.  Because the court of appeals did not follow the law in this 
instance, we hereby reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and reinstate the 
judgment of the Court of Claims. 
Judgment reversed. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
28 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and FRENCH, DEWINE, and STEWART, JJ., concur. 
KENNEDY, J., concurs in judgment only, with an opinion joined by 
FISCHER, J. 
_________________ 
KENNEDY, J., concurring in judgment only. 
{¶ 78} Because I agree that appellee, the Jefferson County Prosecuting 
Attorney, has failed to demonstrate that security-camera footage of the shooting of 
a judge outside the courthouse falls within the security-record exception to the 
release of public records, I concur in the majority’s judgment today.  I write 
separately, however, to emphasize the simple rule of law that emanates from the 
court’s decision. 
{¶ 79} This case presents a narrow issue regarding whether security-camera 
footage can be a “security record” within the meaning of R.C. 149.433(A)(1) and 
returns us to a familiar place: statutory interpretation.  As we explained long ago, 
“[t]he question is not what did the general assembly intend to enact, but what is the 
meaning of that which it did enact.”  Slingluff v. Weaver, 66 Ohio St. 621, 64 N.E. 
574 (1902), paragraph two of the syllabus.  “When the language of a statute is plain 
and unambiguous and conveys a clear and definite meaning, there is no need for 
this court to apply the rules of statutory interpretation.”  Symmes Twp. Bd. of 
Trustees v. Smyth, 87 Ohio St.3d 549, 553, 721 N.E.2d 1057 (2000).  Rather, “[a]n 
unambiguous statute is to be applied, not interpreted.”  Sears v. Weimer, 143 Ohio 
St. 312, 55 N.E.2d 413 (1944), paragraph five of the syllabus. 
{¶ 80} The Public Records Act, R.C. 149.43 et seq., requires a public office 
to make copies of public records available to any person upon request, within a 
reasonable period of time.  R.C. 149.43(B)(1).  A “public record” is a record kept 
by a “public office,” R.C. 149.43(A)(1), and the prosecuting attorney does not 
dispute that the security-camera footage is a record of a public office and that she 
is the custodian of it. 
January Term, 2020 
 
29 
{¶ 81} R.C. 149.433(B)(1) and (2) provide that a record kept by a public 
office that is a security record or an infrastructure record is not a public record under 
R.C. 149.43 and is not subject to mandatory release or disclosure under that section.  
R.C. 149.433(A)(1) defines “security record” to include “[a]ny record that contains 
information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public 
office against attack, interference, or sabotage.” 
{¶ 82} Although it might seem counterintuitive to question whether 
security-camera footage is a security record, the statutory definition focuses on how 
the public office uses the information in the record.  It is not enough that the record 
contains information that is relevant to the security of a public office.  It does not 
matter that the information in that record, if released, might make the public office 
vulnerable to attack, interference, or sabotage.  It does not change the calculus that 
the record contains information that could result in a serious threat to life and limb.  
A record is not a security record if it does not contain information directly used to 
protect and maintain the security of the public office from attack, interference, or 
sabotage. 
{¶ 83} In this case, the prosecuting attorney presented no evidence to show 
how the information in the security footage of the shooting is used to protect or 
secure any public office from attack, interference, or sabotage.  Her affidavits are 
fatally defective because they are made “to the best of her information, knowledge 
and belief.”  Witnesses are required to testify from personal knowledge, Evid.R. 
602, and an affidavit made to the best of the affiant’s knowledge, information, and 
belief does not satisfy this standard, see State ex rel. Esarco v. Youngstown City 
Council, 116 Ohio St.3d 131, 2007-Ohio-5699, 876 N.E.2d 953, ¶ 15-16; Bonacorsi 
v. Wheeling & Lake Erie Ry. Co., 95 Ohio St.3d 314, 2002-Ohio-2220, 767 N.E.2d 
707, ¶ 26; Garner v. White, 23 Ohio St. 192, 195-196 (1872). 
{¶ 84} There is no doubt that the security cameras and the livestream of 
video from them are used to safeguard the courthouse.  But there is nothing in the 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
30 
record even suggesting that old security-camera footage in general, and the video 
of the shooting specifically, is used to protect or maintain the security of the 
courthouse.  In fact, the prosecuting attorney admitted that “there has been no use 
of the subject video in any civil litigation, law enforcement training, or other official 
purpose.”  If it has not been used for any official purpose, then it plainly has not 
been used to protect or maintain the security of a public office.  It therefore is not a 
security record exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act. 
{¶ 85} The General Assembly has not crafted an exception to the release of 
a record based on the custodian’s subjective view that the information that the 
record contains could be dangerous if placed in the wrong hands.  Nor is there any 
exception for records that reveal “security measures and surveillance techniques.”  
State ex rel. Rogers v. Dept. of Rehab. & Corr., 155 Ohio St.3d 545, 2018-Ohio-
5111, 122 N.E.3d 1208, ¶ 18.  If such an exception is to be made, it is up to the 
General Assembly to do it—this court “may not rewrite the plain and unambiguous 
language of a statute under the guise of statutory interpretation,” Pelletier v. 
Campbell, 153 Ohio St.3d 611, 2018-Ohio-2121, 109 N.E.3d 1210, ¶ 20. 
{¶ 86} Nevertheless, the majority today reaches the right result, and I 
concur in its judgment reversing the judgment of the court of appeals and reinstating 
the judgment of the Court of Claims. 
 
FISCHER, J., concurs in the foregoing opinion. 
_________________ 
 
Graydon, Head & Ritchey L.L.P., John C. Greiner, and Darren W. Ford, for 
appellant. 
Jane M. Hanlin, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee. 
 
Faruki, L.L.P, Erin E. Rhinehart, and Christopher C. Hollon, urging reversal 
for amici curiae Ohio Coalition for Open Government; Ohio Association of 
Broadcasters; Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; The E.W. Scripps 
Company; Gannet Co., Inc.; International Documentary Association; Investigative 
January Term, 2020 
 
31 
Reporting Workshop at American University; The Media Institute; MPA—The 
Association of Magazine Media; National Freedom of Information Coalition; The 
News Leaders Association, Society of Environmental Journalists; and Society of 
Professional Journalists. 
 
Mathia H. Heck Jr., Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney, and 
Nathaniel S. Peterson, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, urging affirmance for 
amicus curiae Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. 
_________________