JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A Rankin County Chancery Court ruled that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office violated the Mississippi Public Records Act.

According to the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ), the media company, Insider, Inc., was denied incident reports from the sheriff’s office regarding the deaths of three men in custody. The company, represented by MCJ, filed a lawsuit.

The court determined that the sheriff’s office wrongly withheld the requested incident reports by incorrectly claiming they were “investigatory reports.” According to the court, the designation was not justified under the state’s public records law.