A Radford Circuit Court judge has ruled that the city violated the state's Freedom of Information Act when it redacted portions of two documents supplied to The Roanoke Times.

The newspaper filed FOIA requests with the city in August 2008 and September 2008, asking in part for copies of any other FOIA requests the city received between June 15, 2008, and Sept. 18, 2008.

City Attorney Jim Guynn provided heavily redacted copies of two FOIA requests that were filed in July 2008 and August 2008 by city spokeswoman and Deputy City Council Clerk Becky Hawke. In her requests, Hawke sought a copy of a findings report from an internal city investigation into a harassment complaint.

Names and other pertinent information were redacted from one document, while two pages of a 2¹₂-page document were excluded.

The newspaper filed suit against the city in September 2008, arguing that Hawke's FOIA requests are by definition public records and must be released in full. The city claimed that the redacted portions were exempt as personnel files.

In an opinion issued Tuesday and received by the newspaper's attorney Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Joey Showalter ruled that The Roanoke Times is entitled to the redacted portions of Hawke's FOIA requests, but not to the first two pages of the 2¹₂-page document.

"The City has not presented a compelling argument to construe a FOIA request becoming part of 'personnel records' for purposes of the FOIA exclusion merely because the requests make reference to individual city employees," Showalter wrote.

The names of two people were improperly excluded from the documents, he wrote.

However, Showalter continued, the first two pages of the second document do not include a FOIA request but consist only of correspondence to Guynn from Hawke, in which she takes issue with his legal opinion regarding her earlier FOIA request.

Hawke's second FOIA request is delineated later in the letter, Showalter wrote.

"We're pleased that the court ruled that the city violated the law when it redacted parts of the FOIA request," Roanoke Times Managing Editor Michael Stowe said, "and we're happy that Judge Showalter clearly stated that the FOIA requests should not have been considered personnel records."

While The Roanoke Times does not plan to appeal the judge's decision regarding the letter to Guynn, it does believe the entire contents should have been released, Stowe said.

It is unclear if Radford plans to appeal. Guynn was out of the office and couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Hawke declined to comment.