Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has ruled that the Department of Corrections violated the state's Open Records Act by repeatedly missing its self-imposed deadlines for producing documents requested by Ashley Elgin, widow of an inmate who died at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex. The decision, issued June 10, highlights what Coleman characterized as an agency "subverted the intent of the Open Records Act when it failed to produce records within its own self-imposed deadline."

The ruling stems from a 35-part records request Elgin filed April 10 related to the in-custody death of her husband, Robert Broyles Jr. Broyles, 34, was strangled to death at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in August 2025, just nine days before his scheduled release. Broyles was serving time for a non-violent weapons charge.

The Department initially told Elgin it would respond by May 11 due to the volume of documents. However, on May 11 at 5:33 p.m., rather than releasing the records, the Department issued a second extension requesting an additional week to complete the work. Under Kentucky law, agencies must respond to any records request in writing within five working days. The statute allows extensions only when records are "in active use, in storage or not otherwise available" if the agency provides "detailed explanation of the cause for further delay" and specifies "the earliest date on which the public record will be available."

Coleman's office determined that missing a self-imposed deadline and then requesting another extension violates the statute. "An agency's failure to miss its self-imposed deadline is not resolved by informing the Appellant of that failure and extending its deadline," the decision states. The ruling references similar past violations in which agencies issued successive deadline extensions.

Elgin has said the facility has provided no answers despite her repeated attempts to contact officials, and she has made several open records requests to the correctional facility. The Department can appeal Coleman's decision to circuit court within 30 days.