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Judge Denies Keokuk Police Request

The Keokuk Police Department must hand over records related to a sex abuse lawsuit involving the Keokuk School District.

District Court Judge Michael Schilling has denied a request from the police department for a pair of protective orders against a pair of subpoenas filed earlier this summer.

The KPD had argued that the records related to a 2009 investigation involving Gina Sisk should not be released because they include confidential information and because the investigation was ongoing.

Sisk is being accused by a former student of sexual abuse while Sisk was a teacher and coach in the Keokuk School District.  The student has only been identified as Jane Doe II.

Sisk has since resigned from the Keokuk School District.  She had been on administrative leave since 2012 when a similar lawsuit was filed in Henry County.

Attorneys for Sisk and Jane Doe II subpoenaed the records.

Judge Schilling said in his ruling that the public interest would not be harmed by releasing the records.

He also said the records are not exempt from Iowa's Open Records Act because that investigation involving Sisk has not been active since 2009.

Lee County Attorney Mike Short said copies of the records will be made and provided to the attorneys as early as next week.

He says this does not mean the records will become public information.

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Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.