St. Helens sued again over public records 

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

The city of St. Helens is facing another lawsuit over its handling of public records requests.

In a lawsuit filed June 30 in the Columbia County Circuit Court, Columbia County public defender Jennifer Myrick accused the city of unlawfully withholding public records that Myrick requested in February.

According to the complaint, Myrick asked for all records that reference herself. She sought the records after experiencing alleged harassment from the St. Helens Police Department.

By May, the city told Myrick the cost of the records would total to more than $600, which she paid. The city also informed her that it would not disclose some of the records — two St. Helens Police Department case files — that were responsive to her request.

The majority of records maintained by local municipalities are available to the public upon request, though Oregon law allows for some documents to be exempt from disclosure, such as communications protected by attorney-client privilege, documents that contain security information and more. When possible, agencies are required to redact the information in a public record that is exempt from disclosure instead of withholding the entire document.

When an agency denies a request to disclose records, the requester can appeal the denial. Appeals are typically reviewed by the district attorney in that jurisdiction.

Myrick appealed the city’s denial to release the police case files to Columbia County District Attorney Joshua Pond, who ordered the city to give them to her. That same day, the city billed Myrick $3,605 to process the request.

According to the complaint, Myrick was given an incomplete copy of one of the files, but the city refused to send the full copies of both files until she paid the $3,605 bill. She was also told that an additional fee would be required to obtain copies of police body camera footage included in her records request.

Myrick alleges that the city slowly rolled out fee demands in order to limit her access to public records. Because of her role as a public defender, Myrick said in her complaint that she is likely to request records from the city again and that she feels the city’s alleged reluctance to answer those requests will continue if the court does not intervene.

Another records suit ongoing

This is one of two lawsuits St. Helens is currently battling regarding public records.

Attorney and former mayoral candidate Steven Toschi is currently suing the city for withholding portions of an investigative report into the former St. Helens police chief.

The lawsuit revolves around an investigation into former St. Helens Police Chief Brian Greenway. Only a portion of the resulting report has been released, and Toschi alleges that the unreleased portion will expose collusion between Mayor Jennifer Massey and the former police chief to withhold 24/7 police coverage from the city to bolster Massey’s mayoral campaign.