Judge sanctions State Fair of Texas after it sued lawyer who wants to see Big Tex’s checkbook

[TexasTowelie]

Big Tex probably feels a little singed after the judge hit the State Fair of Texas with $38,587 in sanctions. (John McKibben)

DALLAS -- A Dallas County judge ruled Thursday that the State Fair of Texas was wrong to sue an Austin attorney who just wanted a peek at Big Tex’s checkbook. And as a result, the judge slapped the fair with a sanction bigger than the Texas Star.

On March 20, Austin attorney Jennifer Riggs filed an open-records request in which she asked the State Fair of Texas for a mountain of information — everything from how it made its money to where it spent its money to who decides how that money is spent to who keeps that money. Riggs wanted to see years’ worth of contracts and correspondence with the city of Dallas, the State Fair’s landlord, and the deals of presidents past (Errol McKoy) and present (Mitchell Glieber). Riggs didn’t say for whom she was filing the request, only that it was “on behalf of a client.” And, said Riggs, if the State Fair thought it was immune from such a request, officials were free to ask the Texas Attorney General for an opinion.

The State Fair of Texas had something else in mind: On April 21, it sued Riggs and her law firm Riggs & Ray in Dallas County court, insisting the State Fair of Texas is not a ‘governmental body’ as defined by the Texas Public Information Act. Said the lawsuit, “Neither SFT nor any part, section, or portion of SFT spends public funds or is supported in whole or in part by public funds.” The State Fair of Texas wanted a judge to tell Jennifer Riggs she and her client were out of luck.

Instead, Judge Staci Williams ruled Thursday that the State Fair sued Riggs in order to make her and her client tuck tail and disappear, lest they go broke fighting for records the fair is refusing to hand over. Williams agrees with Riggs: The fair’s lawsuit qualifies as a SLAPP suit — that is, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation filed whenever governmental entities don’t want to hand over public records.

Read more: http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2015/08/judge-says-the-state-fair-of-texas-slaap-ed-attorney-who-wants-to-see-big-texs-checkbook.html/

[MicaelS]

1. Good one.

What would the State Fair of Texas have to hide? Obviously something.

[hobbit709]

3. +1. What are they hiding?

[Gothmog]

2. This was a good ruling