Of Tiger and Florida’s Sunshine Laws

Notwithstanding our concerns about exams, we thought we’d drop a quick line about the Tiger situation.

By now you’ve all seen or heard something about the Tiger Woods saga. Early last Friday morning he ran his SUV into a tree in his neighborhood. At first it was reported he was in serious condition. Then he had been treated and released for minor facial lacerations. Originally it looked like his wife, Elin, ran to the SUV smashed the back window with a golf club and pulled the world’s greatest (and semi-conscious) golfer to safety. TMZ subsequently reported that the injuries were caused by Elin in a domestic dispute from which Tiger was fleeing… and, well, you get the idea. Read more here and here (the latter links from TMZ is particularly interesting)

Where we start to care about this story from a legal perspective is the fact that Tiger repeatedly refuses to speak with the police to provide a statement clarifying the events of that evening. He is perfectly within his rights to do that. From all I can tell there is no formal criminal investigation, Tiger has not been detained, no charges have been filed. If he doesn’t want to speak with the police, he doesn’t have to. And even if he does speak to them, he is not under any obligation to answer questions he doesn’t want to answer and would be free to leave (or kick them out) at any time.

The police’s interest is several-fold, I’d imagine. First, Tiger shouldn’t receive special treatment (and is likely being more aggressively pursued given this concern). Second, if this is actually a case of domestic battery (by one or both of them), there could be a threat of death or serious bodily injury to one spouse, to their children, or all of the above. And, third, if we’re looking at a potential divorce, evidence of domestic battery is significant in determining custody and other such issues.

But why wouldn’t he do it just to clear the air? Assuming for a moment that Tiger is not the intensely private, control freak we all know him to be, one big reason could be Florida’s aptly-named sunshine laws.

§ 119.01(1), Fla. Stat. says:

It is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person. Providing access to public records is a duty of each agency.

So any statement that Tiger provides and, more importantly, any medical records the police are able to obtain from that night could be available to the public, unless these records are considered “active criminal investigative information.” Section 119.071 of the Sunshine law exempts release of such information. Per the Attorney General’s website:

Arrest and crime reports are generally considered to be open to public inspection. AGOs 91-74 and 80-96. And see AGO 08-23 (officer trip sheets revealing identity of officer, location and hours of work and locations to which officers have responded for emergency and non-emergency purposes are public records). However, s. 119.071(2)(c)1., F.S., exempts active criminal intelligence information and active criminal investigative information from public inspection. To be exempt, the information must be both “active” and constitute either “criminal investigative” or “criminal intelligence” information. See Woolling v. Lamar, 764 So. 2d 765, 768 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000), review denied, 786 So. 2d 1186 (Fla. 2001) (in order for a record to constitute exempt active criminal investigative information, “the claimant must show that the record is both ‘active’ and that it constitutes ‘criminal investigative information’”).

Thus, if a crime report contains active criminal investigative information, the criminal investigative information may be excised from the report. AGO 91-74. See also Palm Beach Daily News v. Terlizzese, No. CL-91-3954-AF (Fla. 15th Cir. Ct. April 5, 1991), holding that a newspaper was not entitled under Ch. 119, F.S., to inspect the complete and uncensored incident report (prepared following a reported sexual battery but prior to the arrest of a suspect), including the investigating officer’s narrative report of the interview with the victim, since such information was exempt from inspection as active criminal investigative information and as information identifying sexual battery victims. See s. 119.071(2)(c) and (h), F.S.

Unless there is a criminal investigation here, Tiger’s decision not to talk to the police is more PR than legal. In fact, it’s not at all legal since he’s not under investigation or facing charges.

So, putting my PR hat on and based on what we know publicly (which could be very little and quite inaccurate based as it is on speculation), I’d make very clear to Tiger that silence isn’t making this go away. For whatever reason, the police are pursuing this thing despite the fact that this is really just a traffic accident. Because it isn’t going away, the first task is to remove the police form the story. Each time they knock on his mansion door, it’s a fresh news story. At this point, I see very little reason why he wouldn’t go to the police and say something to the effect of: “Elin and I got into an argument and I stormed out. We’ve worked out our differences and neither of us intends to press any charges. I’m happy to answer questions about the accident itself, but as far as we’re concerned questions about our marriage and our family are irrelevant to your investigation.”

I’d advise this even though I generally agree with Tiger’s silence about his personal life and general disdain for the scandal-hunting of many in the media. Even if there were some sort of domestic dispute that involved Elin hitting Tiger in the mouth with an 8-iron, if he doesn’t want to press charges, I think that brings the matter to an end. The hope would be that this statement would give the police sufficient information on which to base a report and wrap up their inquiry.

The next issue to address would be this deal with the woman in New York with whom Tiger was allegedly having an affair. If said affair did indeed lead to the accident (and any dispute that may have caused it), there may be some PR fallout there. But thus far the woman is adamantly denying it, and I suspect her retaining Gloria Allred as counsel is as much for publicity as it is for legal protection. If nothing happened with this woman, Tiger need only say publicly what he tells the police. Let people think what they may beyond that. If something did happen, it wouldn’t hurt  to come clean in a one-on-one interview with someone he trusts and make clear that it’s over, he understands how badly he hurt Elin and disappointed his fans, but that he’s human and he’s trying to make things right. He’s popular enough that this would set aside any anger over his actions. (unless of course something far more Kobe-like is afoot here, in which case this is a whole new ballgame)