This is why it costs $2,154 to publish a transcript of Brock Turner’s sentencing hearing

It only costs $28.62 to produce the transcript of the sentencing of Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, but if you want to publish it for public consumption you have to pay $2,153.65.

The case went viral when BuzzFeed published the statement of Turner’s 23-year-old victim. Turner was only sentenced to six months in county jail because the judge said he feared a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on the 20-year-old.

The victim provided her statement to BuzzFeed, which she read in full to her attacker during his sentencing hearing. But court reporters of Santa Clara County Superior Court decided to charge nearly just over $2,000 to publish the same words, which are considered a public record.

Karl Olson, a First Amendment attorney based in San Francisco, says he believes the court reporters are trying to profit off the girl’s remarks. He called the amount “outrageous,” and said that the exorbitant fee could be considered a prior restraint on free speech.

“For them to try and make a profit center out of something that is extremely newsworthy is backwards to me,” Olson said. “In certain high profile cases, most courts will put the transcripts on their websites just so they don’t get flooded with requests.”

Court Reporter Kelly McCarthy said she thought $2,153.65 was a “conservative estimate” (Note: McCarthy originally said it would cost $2,862 in order to obtain the publishable version, then emailed nearly a week later with the corrected figure and said she had miscalculated the amount).

“We thought that was a very conservative amount, because it would probably get clicked more than 100 times,” McCarthy said.

When asked if the actual cost to them producing the transcript was only $28.62, representing a profit of about $2,125 per news outlet, McCarthy refused to confirm and said, “That’s not part of it.”

Court reporters would not send the copy electronically, requiring people interested in the public record to send a form in the mail to indicate if they wanted a copy for personal use for $28.62 or a copy that could be published for $2,153.65. The form also requires a signature indicating that people will not republish the material unless they pay the larger amount.

McCarthy pointed to the part of California law that applied to setting the amount, which states, “Any court, party, or person who has purchased a transcript may, without paying a further fee to the reporter, reproduce a copy or portion thereof as an exhibit pursuant to court order or rule, or for internal use, but shall not otherwise provide or sell a copy or copies to any other party or person.”

Many state laws stipulate that government offices can charge for public records, but fees have to “reasonable.”

Joseph Macaluso, public information officer for the court, said he had no power over the court reporters in this matter.

California law states that court reporters are employees of the court while in the courtroom, and the court owns the copy they produce in shorthand. Then court reporters transcribe that shorthand into an actual transcript that they own. At that point court reporters are independent contractors and the court buys the transcript back from them.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 5:36 PM with the headline "This is why it costs $2,154 to publish a transcript of Brock Turner’s sentencing hearing."