Newton Case Causes Open Records Requests to Increase at AU

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Between July 6, 2010 and the start of last football season, the Auburn athletic department received only three public records requests pertaining to the football program from media entities.

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Auburn received 55 public records requests pertaining to the football program in the past year, including 16 having to do – in some way, shape or form – with the Tigers’ recruitment of Newton and the NCAA investigation into said recruitment, according to a log of public records requests furnished by the university and obtained by the Opelika-Auburn News under the Alabama Open Records Act.

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ESPN requested cell and land line records for head coach Gene Chizik, wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor, running backs coach Curtis Luper, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker and Director of Player Development Ben Thomas.

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The New York Times requested cell phone records for Taylor, Luper, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Rocker, office phone and e-mail records for Chizik, Taylor, Luper, Malzahn and Rocker, and any correspondence between the NCAA and the SEC involving John Bond or Kenny Rogers.

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“Some of them can take quite some time, just because there’s a lot of different issues that come into play, a lot of different departments that may come into play when you’re fulfilling requests,” Carr said. “Some requests it may take three or four different departments all getting you information, just so you can compile it and comply with the requests.

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"There’s a lot of different steps sometimes that have to be taken that can require quite some time before you’re actually able to fulfill a request.” Carr said the university has been able to fulfill “about half” of the records requests it fielded in the past year.

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None of the Newton requests have been filled, he said, because the quarterback’s recruitment is part of an ongoing NCAA investigation.

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“The way you end up handling those – based on the statutes of the state of Alabama – is the universities are not required to turn over documents during a pending investigation,” Carr said. “The way you’ll typically handle those types of requests is to wait until the investigation is complete before you would turn over documents.”

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According to the records released by Auburn, The Birmingham News made 11 records requests pertaining to the football team or Newton since July 2010, the Opelika-Auburn News made eight -- including the request for open records requests -- and ESPN and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer each made five.

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