On August 1, the local online news organization Double Sided Media made two records requests to the Eugene Police Department for data on potential misconduct. EPD responded Sept. 28 with a combined cost of more than $2.6 million for both requests — a number that could point to the “fee bullying” of a media organization.
James Croxton, DSM’s editor-in-chief and Mary Bell, DSM’s managing editor, allege the high price tag may be retaliation for the extensive reporting the organization has done on EPD’s conduct over the years.
Double Sided Media has reported on EPD since the news organization was founded in 2020. Controversial EPD issues DSM has reported on include Martin Siller, a former officer who resigned after body camera footage of him making racially bigoted remarks surfaced. DSM broke the news of who Siller was speaking to — an officer in Utah — while making the comments.
“Over the years, we’ve reported on EPD, and usually not in a favorable light, let’s be honest,” Croxton says.
Two months after EPD Captain Eric Klinko retired March 31, 2022, he voluntarily surrendered his state-issued law enforcement certification.
Bell says she’d been looking into Klinko for allegations of misconduct before he retired and that she suspected his abrupt departure had to do with an internal investigation.
During a May 12 Civilian Review Board meeting, the board looked at a 2025 case involving Officer Justin Peckels shoving a handcuffed suspect into a patrol car, injuring the suspect.
This also caught DSM’s attention.
The review board did not reveal Peckels’ name during the meeting. DSM later contacted the suspect’s attorney, who, with the client’s permission, named Peckels.
Because DSM knew about one officer involved in excessive force allegations, Bell felt it was relevant to request data on Klinko, too. So, DSM sent two requests to EPD, asking for data on all records pertaining to potential misconduct by the two officers.
The requests also asked for relevant internal and external communications received or maintained by EPD’s executive staff, specifically including Skinner and Jake Burke, EPD deputy chief.
On August 18, EPD responded, saying the requests did not benefit the general public, and denied a fee waiver. “They didn’t really provide a reason,” Croxton says, adding that he believes the records would in fact benefit the public if they revealed officers involved in misconduct.
With the waiver denied, DSM paid EPD an initial deposit of $588 for each request so the department could begin its search for applicable records. On Sept. 28, DSM received an email from EPD’s public records program supervisor, Chris Stetson, who told DSM that the records would cost an additional $2,484,599.04 for the Peckels request and $195,869.52 for the Klinko request, for a combined $2,680,468.56.
“We had to do a doubletake to actually make sure that the email was legit,” Croxton says. “We were frankly surprised that instead of them reaching out to us and letting us know that this was going to be much more extensive than what was initially thought, and trying to help us fine-tune the request to make both sides happy, they just sent this absurd bill that I, and nobody I’ve talked to, has seen anything like before.”
EPD spokesperson Chelsea Deffenbacher writes in an email to Eugene Weekly that EPD did try to “help them narrow down their search to something more reasonable and bring down the cost.”
Both Croxton and Bell deny ever receiving such guidance.
“Double Sided Media‘s public records request was extremely vague and nonspecific in nature,” Deffenbacher writes. “While these estimates are astronomical, they have requested an astronomical amount of documents from us.”
Deffenbacher writes that DSM’s request requires the department to search through the emails, folders etc., for all employees, past and present. “That’s more than 2.6 million files we would have to locate, review and potentially redact for private or sensitive information.”
DSM’s requests did not ask EPD to search through the communications of all employees past and present, but instead specifically asked the department to search for correspondence and logs sent and received from “EPD’s executive staff.”
Lauren Harper, the Freedom of the Press Foundation chair on government secrecy, says when she saw the price tag on the request, it immediately pointed towards “fee bullying,” a practice where agencies intentionally charge exorbitant fees to intimidate requesters. On Oct. 1, Harper published a story on the $2.7 million figure in The Intercept, a nonprofit investigative news site that, according to its website, sees journalism as “an instrument of civic action.”
“Any time you see a number that ends in a million, it’s a rare example,” Harper says. “Legislators really need to get serious about instituting things like mandatory fee waivers.”
Bell says DSM appealed the cost to the Lane County District Attorney’s office. “As an investigative journalist, this just tells me I’m on the right path and to keep digging,” Bell says.
In addition to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, DSM is in touch with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press for guidance.
“I never would have thought in a million years that I would be put in this position,” Croxton says. “Moreover, just in the last week, it has really felt like we’ve been thrust into the stratosphere. We’re getting national attention and the support we’ve received is really, really phenomenal.”
Read Double Sided Media on DoubleSidedMedia.com. To support DSM, visit Patreon.com/doublesidedmedia.