The town has to pay $4,000 in legal bills that Planet Princeton’s Krystal Knapp incurred in suing the municipality earlier this year to force the release of government documents, Councilwoman Jo S. Butler said Monday.
The suit also involved Princeton University, which is expected to pay the balance of the roughly $15,000 for attorney Walter Luers. He did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
Ms. Knapp sued the town after she was denied records detailing response protocols between the police department and the university Department of Public Safety. The municipality subsequently changed its mind about withholding the information, but Nassau Hall stepped in to fight the case in state court to shield the more sensitive of the records she was seeking on public safety grounds.
A Mercer County Superior Court judge subsequently issued a split ruling in the case — blocking the disclosure of a color-coded response map but ordering the release of a document outlining what agency responds to what situation.
