Court: U.S. privacy law requires U. of Iowa to withhold records in ’07 assault

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa Supreme Court says the University of Iowa can conceal hundreds of pages of records related to its investigation into an alleged 2007 sexual assault involving football players.

The court ruled 4-3 that the university can withhold records requested by the Iowa City Press-Citizen newspaper.

The court says releasing them could violate a federal law that prohibits the release of personally identifiable information about students. The court says the records can’t be released in redacted form either, because the newspaper knows the identities of students involved in the case.

The newspaper filed the lawsuit in 2008 seeking records about Iowa’s investigation of an assault of a female athlete by former football players Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson. A judge ordered them released in 2009 but the university appealed.