A judge ruled Thursday that the Clark County District Attorney’s Office must release to the public records about payments made to witnesses.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, District Judge Susan Scann ruled that the DA’s office has until the end of the month to turn over documents in a case filed by the newspaper.
The records are part of the Inducement Index, which is a database of benefits given to witnesses in criminal cases. The DA must turn over the case number, the prosecutor assigned to the case and the incentive given, the paper reported.
The DA had argued turning over the information would have put people at risk, but according to the judge’s ruling, only the records of people who have already testified in court will be made public.
The reporter who originally broke the story, Bethany Barnes, told KNPR’s State of Nevada she had wanted to see how the system worked and which witnesses received what incentive. However, the records she was given were redacted.
Barnes said that no one wants to put anyone in danger but the information the DA was withholding was from cases where witnesses had already testified in open court.