Court OK’s withholding Pike Co. autopsy reports from media

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday rejected requests from two newspapers for unredacted autopsy reports in the case of eight members of a Pike County killed in 2016.

In a 4-3 decision, the justices ruled that portions of a county coroner’s autopsy reports that are part of an open homicide investigation are not public records and not available for public inspection until investigators release them.

Six adults and a 16-year-old boy were murdered execution-style in three adjacent houses in Peebles in April 2016 while the eighth victim, an adult, was found shot to death in nearby Piketon.

The court ruled the Pike County Coroner’s Office was acting within its rights when it denied the Cincinnati Enquirer and The Columbus Dispatch unredacted versions of the reports on the autopsies performed by the Hamilton County coroner on the victims.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said the Ohio General Assembly amended the law regarding coroner records in 2009 to exempt “confidential law enforcement investigatory records” and that the portions redacted by the coroner met the exemption.

In separate dissenting opinions, Justices Sharon Kennedy and Patrick Fischer wrote that lawmakers clearly made autopsy reports public records and the exception did not apply.