DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240441

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   26 lines

STATE SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR 911 RECORDING CASE

The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a ruling that exempted a sheriff's department recording from the state's Freedom of Information Act.

Several newspapers and television stations sued Surry County Sheriff Harold Brown to release the tape of a November 1995 emergency call. A toddler choked to death after rescue personnel were delayed when a dispatcher gave them incorrect directions.

Brown refused to make the 911 recording public. Circuit Judge Robert G. O'Hara Jr. ruled last May that the tape wasn't subject to the FOI.

The court agreed Wednesday to hear the appeal of O'Hara's ruling.

``We believe the issues are clear, that the lower court erred and that the public has the right to listen to these 911 tapes,'' said Stephen E. Noona, an attorney for the Daily Press of Newport News, the Smithfield Times and the Sussex-Surry Dispatch. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE SUPREME COURT APPEAL LAWSUIT

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu