Virginia Tech's student newspaper has won financial support from the Society of Professional Journalists to help in a public information suit against West Virginia State Police.

The Collegiate Times has been chosen to receive $1,000 from the society's legal defense fund to further a suit filed in May to obtain police investigation records relating to the 1998 disappearance of Tech student Robert Kovack, according to a news release.

Kelly Furnas, the paper's faculty adviser, on Monday called the grant "extremely generous and very helpful."

So far the suit has cost the nonprofit Collegiate Times about $10,000, Furnas said.

Because the suit was brought in West Virginia, the paper was forced to hire a second attorney familiar with West Virginia law and courts, driving up costs. The Collegiate Times is an independent news organization funded primarily through advertising sales, and the suit is a "significant financial burden," the adviser said.

Reporter Caleb Fleming worked throughout the 2008-09 school year on a wide-ranging story about Kovack and the still unsolved case.

Kovack left Blacksburg on Sept. 18, 1998, telling friends he planned to visit his family in Rivesville, W.Va. Four days later, police found his abandoned vehicle along the side of West Virginia 19 near the New River Gorge Bridge.

While West Virginia State Police were helpful with some aspects of the story, the agency ultimately denied two requests for documents filed under West Virginia's Freedom of Information law. The police cited an exemption in the law that allows, but does not require, that documents from an open investigation be withheld.

The newspaper filed suit in May in Kanawha County Circuit Court, arguing for full or partial access to documents related to the 10-year-old case.

To legally deny access to the records, Furnas said, the police must demonstrate that release of the information would damage their investigation.

"With a 10-year-old cold case, I have to imagine more information being out in the public would help the police get more leads," Furnas said.

The Society of Professional Journalists is a nonprofit advocacy and education association based in Indiana, with student and professional chapters scattered across the country.