Hawk Eye v. Jackson

NEUMAN, Justice.

This appeal concerns a county attorney’s refusal to produce an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation file for inspection by a newspaper. After weighing the interests of the public on the issue, the district court ordered the official to turn over the file. We affirm.

In the spring of 1991, Steve Sands, a reporter for the Burlington newspaper, The Hawk Eye, wrote a series of articles aimed at local reaction to the highly publicized beating of Rodney Ring by Los Angeles police officers. As a part of the series, Sands interviewed local law enforcement officials about whether…