John Thomas is asking a St. Louis City Circuit Court judge to rule that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department violated Missouri’s Sunshine Law in handling his request for records. The suit, filed by the Goldwater Institute on Thomas’s behalf, also seeks release of records the department has not provided, repayment of a $183.77 fee and statutory civil penalties, according to the institute. Those are requests in the lawsuit, not findings by a court.
What the lawsuit alleges
Thomas sought documents, call recordings and body-camera footage related to a police response at a property he owned. Goldwater says the department did not respond within three business days and, within 30 days, neither provided the requested materials nor sought court permission to withhold or redact them.
More than three months after the request, the department sent Thomas a $183.77 fee demand as a condition of processing it, Goldwater says. Thomas paid under protest, and the department later released some records but not all; the institute says that partial production came more than four months after the request. The lawsuit asks the court to determine whether the department’s handling violated the law.
The request concerned a police response to a report that the property had been condemned. Goldwater says officers checked department records, found no condemnation notice and left without taking action. The department’s spokesperson, Evita Caldwell, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
A separate appellate ruling involved a different issue
A Missouri Sunshine Law ruling offers limited context, but does not resolve Thomas’s claims. On Jan. 28, 2025, the Western District Court of Appeals ruled that the Missouri Attorney General’s Office reasonably treated records about how it handled an earlier request as exempt because of threatened litigation, the Missouri Independent reported. That case concerned state-agency records and a litigation exemption—not a police department’s response deadline, production of records or fee.
The court has not yet determined whether St. Louis police violated the law in Thomas’s case. The department has declined to comment while the suit is pending.
