Puplic Records Show ... Man Accused of Beating Disabled Boy Was Innocent

A man was accused of beating a disabled boy at a library in the Tri Cities. The accused man's criminal defense attorney made a public records request for the surveillance tape at the library.

The tape showed the man was innocent.

It is interesting that at first the library claimed the tape could be withheld from disclosure because it was a "library record." The accused had to go to court and obtain an order compelling disclosure. Ironically, the law designed to shield the books one checks out at a library from public scrutiny, which is to protect individual liberties, was initially used to ... deprive someone of his individual liberties of being free from criminal charges for a crime he did not commit.