Columbus, OH

An attorney for ESPN contends that despite recent actions, Ohio State violated Ohio public record laws over several public records involving the recent scandal in the football program.

John Greiner, attorney for ESPN, filed a reply brief on Dec. 23 and in it he said that the university violated the law.

"Because OSU cannot justify its violations of the Ohio Public Records Act or FERPA, this court should grant ESPN's petition for a Writ of Mandamus and award 100 percent of its attorney fees," Greiner wrote.

FERPA, or the Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is a law used to protect the privacy of students. ESPN contends that Ohio State wrongfully cited FERPA as a reason for withholding information.

ESPN has said the violations occurred in April and May of 2011 and Greiner wrote that actions taken after the fact do not outweigh from the original violations.

"OSU can offer this court all of the misdirection in its playbook, but it cannot avoid the inconvenient truth that it violated the Public Records Act in its response to ESPN's requests," Greiner wrote.

ESPN states that it is the role of the university to assist in making all public records accessible, and in the university's responses, Greiner and ESPN state that there is no information about how to proceed in its request.

"As a public records requester, ESPN is not required to take on the role of a biblical scholar and derive the hidden meaning in a plainly worded message from a public body," Greiner wrote. "This court must judge whether OSU complied with the Public Records Act based on its only response. And that response violated the Public Records Act."

The Ohio Supreme Court has not yet set a date for oral arguments and the university has yet to file a response to the court.

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