MULDRAUGH, KY — Joshua Ferguson, an investigative journalist with the Muldraugh Register LLC, has filed a formal complaint against the Muldraugh Police Department after the agency denied his open records request related to a recent incident involving one of its officers.
According to the complaint, Ferguson submitted the request on April 24, 2025, seeking access to six specific types of records, including the arrest report, body camera footage, and personnel file for Officer Jay Burks. The following day, Chief Tim Jackson denied the request, citing an exemption due to an ongoing “multi-agency criminal investigation.”
However, Ferguson noted in his complaint that he submitted identical requests to the Meade County Sheriff’s Office, Kentucky State Police, and Meade County E911, all of which provided the records without citing the same exemption. This inconsistency is now the basis of Ferguson’s appeal to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, submitted on May 5, 2025.
“This demonstrates that the claimed exemption by the Muldraugh Police Department is not consistently applied and may not be justified,” Ferguson wrote.
Ferguson’s complaint, filed under KRS 61.880(2), includes attached documentation such as the original records request, the denial response from the police department, and the responses received from the other agencies.
Transparency advocates argue that this complaint highlights ongoing issues with how some local departments interpret and apply open records laws, especially in smaller jurisdictions.
The Attorney General’s Office is now tasked with investigating whether the Muldraugh Police Department’s denial violated the Kentucky Open Records Act.
No public comment has been issued by Chief Jackson or the Muldraugh Police Department as of the time of this publication.
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