California judge orders Google to turn over data on Gov. Rick Scott's Gmail account
TALLAHASSEE — In a major defeat for Gov. Rick Scott, a California judge on Thursday ordered Google to turn over the computer IP addresses for all correspondence to and from the Florida governor's private Gmail account since Jan. 15, 2011, and the accounts of two of his staffers.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mary E. Arand ruled that the governor's attempt to quash a request by Tallahassee lawyer Steven R. Andrews was not valid.
"The subscriber information and IP addresses will assist Andrews in determining whether a public official created the accounts, which, in turn, could establish that official agency business may have been transacted from those accounts,'' Arand wrote in a four-page ruling filed on the court website.
Andrews wants the computer company to give him the subscriber identities and IP addresses to help prove his claim that the governor attempted to use the rls.gov@gmail.com account to shield communications from the state's public records laws. When the governor refused to turn over information about the accounts last year, Andrews got a Tallahassee court to approve a subpoena to seek the information from Google. Circuit Court Judge Charles A. Francis also ordered the governor to stop fighting the request.
In September, the governor filed a lawsuit in a Santa Clara County court to prevent Google from releasing information on when the private Gmail accounts used by Scott and two aides were created.
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