The father accused the prosecutor's office of delaying the trial and failing to thoroughly investigate the case. However, the victim's father was still angry that Wagner had not been charged with manslaughter or vehicular homicide. The public will have to decide whether it believes that Wagner was properly brought to justice or whether she received favorable treatment. But in order to instill public confidence, a concerned citizen should be granted access to the police records in that case. If the records were kept secret, there would always be a suspicion that the police or the prosecutors were hiding something.
Public policy favors access so that the public's questions, if any, can be answered.
There are other public policy reasons why the records of constitutional officers should be subject to Virginia's FOI Act. If constitutional officers were not covered by the FOI Act, then the public would have no right of access to basic financial records of the offices, showing how much it spent on office supplies or other expenses. Because there is always a danger that some unscrupulous employee might abuse government funds, the public would always have an interest in having access to the agency's financial records to ensure the money was spent properly. Because the public has such a strong interest in knowing how the Commonwealth's Attorney's office operates, no special exception should be made for the Commonwealth's Attorney. Lucy Dalglish, Esq.