Court sides with West Virginia TV station over records on top official’s firing

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A termination letter involving a former top official at the now-defunct agency that ran West Virginia’s foster care and substance use support services is public information, a state appeals court ruled this week, siding with the television station that was denied the letter.

The public interest in the firing of former Department of Health and Human Resources Deputy Secretary Jeremiah Samples — who was the second highest-ranking official in the state’s largest agency — outweighs concerns about privacy violations, West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals Chief Judge Thomas E. Scarr said

“Public employees have reduced privacy interests in records relating to their performance—especially when the records relate to the conduct of high-ranking officials,” he wrote in a decision released Thursday, reversing a Kanawha County Circuit Court decision from last year.

The appeals court judges demanded that the lower court direct the department to release the letter penned by former health and human resources Secretary Bill Crouch to Huntington-based television station WSAZ.

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