Nearly eight months into its public records lawsuit against Rick and Cherie Solie and the University of Alaska, the Sun Star is prepping for a shift in management.

Columnist-critic Robinson Duffy will slide into the editor's chair at the end of the semester, inheriting a heck of a hand-me-down from current managing editor Sharice Walker. The newspaper's legal legacy will continue over the summer with a closed hearing between University attorneys and a judge with a possible trial by November, according to case insiders.

The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 13, 2003, aims to free up police records related to the former Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblyman's Aug. 30 arrest on campus for driving while intoxicated. Attention is focused on a police videotape allegedly made at the scene of the arrest.

In the weeks following the arrest, UAF Police Chief Terry Vrabec received four public information requests—two from the Sun Star and two others from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and KTVF Channel 11. After consideration by UA General Counsel James Parrish, the requests were denied on grounds the release of the information could infringe on the Solies' right to privacy under the Alaska Public Records Act. Walker took the matter to court, claiming the couple's status as public figures exempted them from the privacy clause. Cherie Solie, who was with her husband at the time of his arrest, managed Gov. Frank Murkowski's campaign in fall 2002 and now directs his Fairbanks office.

Various court filings from October 2003 to March 2004 reveal a series of arguments swatted back and forth between the Solies' attorney, William Satterberg, and the Sun Star's pro bono lawyer, Lawrence Reger.

The atmosphere around the case has become fierce in recent months, with Satterberg suggesting in court documents that the student newspaper is pushing the case more for personal recognition than for the public good.

"The Sun Star's inquiry into Mr. Solie's arrest is not an instance in which the media seeks [sic] to examine the conduct of a police agency or any other public agency," he wrote in a Dec. 15 filing. "Instead, the Sun Star's focus is obviously on the private citizen that was arrested and his spouse."

A week after filing the lawsuit, the Sun Star reported that Solie had received a drunken driving conviction in 1981 when he was a student at the University of Vermont. That information was never mentioned in Solie's Sept. 19, 2003 court hearing, where he was sentenced as a first-time DWI offender. District Court Judge Jane Kauvar told the Sun Star she didn't know about the conviction, noting that it would be up to the prosecutor to bring up prior offenses. Fairbanks District Attorney Jeffrey O'Bryant, who handled the case, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner soon afterward that he did not know about the prior DWI, and would look into the Vermont offense, if it existed at all. The News-Miner reported in November that O'Bryant had in fact received the records and was looking into them.

The Sun Star called the District Attorney's office three times last week and once just before press time, but no calls were returned. However one person in the office noted that the case was listed closed in the computer.

Satterberg argued in a Halloween appeal that the student newspaper was not fit to wage a legal battle because it did not constitute a legitimate organization. Reger countered with a sheaf of documents ranging from the Sun Star's inclusion in the Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' bylaws to a historical account of its founding in a book by UAF History Professor Terrance Cole. On Christmas Eve, Superior Court Judge Charles Pengilly ruled that the Sun Star did in fact meet the requirements for an "unincorporated association" under State vs. Aleut Corporation, 1975, which maintained that "[An unincorporated association] is usually characterized by having by-laws governing its organization and operation, a stated purpose for its existence, and providing for its continuity though its membership may change."

The membership will change, and likely before the lawsuit wraps up. Student editors only hold the position for one year, according to the Sun Star's charter. The new editor, Robinson Duffy, looks forward to the year ahead for the paper. The legal battle he will inherit from Walker proved one of his biggest concerns over whether or not to take the job.

"It's such a big, convoluted mess," he said, although he takes comfort in the fact that he won't be alone with the responsibility; Reger will be there to guide the newspaper through the legal technicalities along with journalism professor Brian O'Donoghue, the faculty adviser.

Duffy said he'll take a decidedly different approach to managing the Sun Star, but looks forward to the end of the legal conundrum. "I don't feel like there's this big weight on my chest because there's so many people helping out," he says. "I'm crossing my fingers to see what happens."

 Over the next few months, dates will be set for a closed hearing in which the court will view the police videotape of Solie's Aug. 30 arrest. A judge will then weigh the statutes under the Alaska Public Records act and decide how the law applies. After the tape is turned over to the court, Reger said during a March hearing, the university will likely be let out of the case.

"Alaska has traditionally been one of the most outspoken proponents of privacy rights," Reger said later. "With that history, there should be no surprise that privacy interests, even with regard to public documents, are going to be respected by the Alaska legislature and Alaska courts."

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