Watchdogs File FOIA Lawsuit Against Paris District 95 Seeking Unredacted Subpoena –

Paris, Ill. (ECWd) –

Last week we filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit (“FOIA”) against Paris Union School District 95 seeking unredacted copies of the Grand Jury subpoenas served on the district in June 2023.

According to the Complaint, we are alleging D95 violated FOIA by failing to provide the federal grand jury subpoena(s) issued to the school district in June of 2023.

The complaint is based on the Appellate Court’s holding in Better Government Association vs. Blagojevich, 386 Ill. App. 3d 808 (2008), which upheld the Circuit Court’s Order that Blagojevich was to produce those federal grand jury subpoenas to the Better Government Association under the Freedom of Information Act. Finding that the grand jury secrecy rules did not specifically prohibit a public body that is the recipient of the request from disclosing the contents of the subpoena in response to a FOIA request.

This specific subpoena resulted in the FBI searching a Paris home, and the State Board of Education grant audit alleging $3.24 million in unallowed grant expenditures.