Confidential court documents leaked due to clerical error, officials say – Times Herald Online

Confidential court documents made public by mistake were the result of a clerical error, which Solano County Court officials say has been fixed as of Friday.

The court corrected the issue after the Times-Herald reported Thursday that confidential court documents could have been leaked following a filing system transfer. Court staff at the Superior Court in Vallejo told the Times-Herald of the issue after its request for the rest of a document pertaining to a separate investigation was denied.

“The Court strives to ensure documents that are deemed confidential are properly marked as confidential,” said Court Executive Officer Brian Taylor in a statement. “The Court and the Court’s CMS vendor go through thorough and repeated testing to ensure all documents are properly posted as required by law.”

Taylor said in a statement to the Times-Herald that the 43 documents missing confidential tracking were Ramey warrants, which are used to arrest suspects before formal criminal charges are filed. Taylor’s statement said these documents do not contain personal information of witnesses, victims or defendants.

However, documents seen by the Times-Herald appear to show otherwise. Confidential documents available publicly before the county fixed the error contain detailed personal information of defendants in custody.

One case, where an individual is currently awaiting trial, showed the individual’s home address, driver’s license number and detailed physical descriptions, from height and weight to location and description of tattoos.

“We acknowledge that the Ramey warrant in question has the defendant’s driver’s license number, physical characteristics and address, as they customarily do, for the purpose of correctly identifying the person to be arrested and to avoid the wrongful arrest of someone with the same name, ” said Assistant Court Executive Officer MacCaughey in an email.

An internal audit conducted by the court found that of the 43 Ramey warrants missing confidential tracking, 28 were made public, and 15 cases are currently open, with individuals either awaiting trial or in the pretrial stage, according to MacCaughey. The oldest warrant is from 2022.

Earlier this week, former San Francisco District Attorney and Executive Director of the Criminal Law and Justice center at UC Berkeley told the Times-Herald that confidential court information being inadvertently leaked could affect ongoing trials, particularly if jury members came across information about a defendant that otherwise wouldn’t have been allowed in court.

MacCaughey said the court is not aware of any other confidential information being inadvertently displayed to the public, and that the court is in the process of running “detailed reports” to ensure that confidential documents are being properly programmed into the system. The court has done regular testing on its electronic filing system since its launch in March 2023.

In addition, MacCaughey said that in light of the clerical error reported by the Times-Herald, the court has contacted its system vendor, Journal Technologies, which said it was unaware of any “system vulnerabilities or malfunctions” that could have led to the exposure of confidential documents. According to MacCaughey, Journal Technologies eCourt system is used in 20 different California Superior Courts, with more coming in the future.

MacCaughey said the court is confident that this was an isolated incident.

“While we strive for 100% accuracy in all clerical work, we recognize that human error can occur,” McCaughey said in an email. “Our goal is to maintain a high level of accuracy while acknowledging the challenges that may arise in day-to-day operations.”