DECEMBER 1990: Palm Beach Circuit Judge Richard L. Oftedal ordered Palm Beach County Sheriff Richard Wille to pay the attorneys' fees of The Palm Beach Post after Wille denied the newspaper access to transcripts of taped interviews. The paper had sought access to transcripts of interviews with alleged sexual assault victims of a suspect in a murder investigation. The court ruled that the transcripts were public records because they were available to defense attorneys in the case under state evidence rules.

OCTOBER 1990: Circuit Judge Vernon Douglas ordered the Hamilton County Development Authority and the city of Jasper not to deed a tract of land to TSI Southeast Inc. after the sale was approved in a meeting held without sufficient notice. The Hamilton County Concerned Citizens Inc. brought suit to stop the sale of land, which was to be used for construction of biohazards waste incinerators.

AUGUST 1990: The City of West Palm Beach paid $6,500 in attorneys' fees to settle a public records lawsuit brought by attorney Frank Kreidler of Lake Worth. Kreidler sought resumes of applicants for city manager, and was told by city authorities he would have to go to an Atlanta consultant's office to review such documents.

APRIL 1990: Circuit Judge Dean Moxley ordered Brevard State Attorney Norman Wolfinger to pay more than $31,000 to the Orlando Sentinel and Florida Today for legal fees incurred trying to gain access to prosecution records in the murder trial of William Cruse. Before Cruse's trial in 1989, Wolfinger denied reporters' requests for copies of autopsy records, Cruse's blood-alcohol tests, ballistics reports and other records.

APRIL 1990: Broward Circuit Judge Patricia Cocalis ordered the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to pay the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel $7,637 in legal costs resulting from a 1988 lawsuit. The newspaper had sued HRS for access to 10,000 pages of unusual-incident reports. In her order to release all the reports, Cocalis said the agency appeared to be trying to thwart reporters' investigations.

MARCH 1990: Judge John Gordon awarded the Miami Association of Firefighters, Local 587, $5,500 in attorneys' fees in a lawsuit against the city of Miami. The union sought documents pertaining to a special investigative panel the city established to review the fire department.

MARCH 1990: Circuit Judge Kevin Davey awarded $7,000 to an environmental group after ruling that that nine Jefferson County officials violated the open meetings laws on four occasions in 1989. Davey ruled that a recess of a County Commission meeting and several inspection tours were in violation of the law. All the violations related to the commissions consideration of a proposed Texaco petroleum terminal in Lloyd.

MARCH 1990: Youth Homes of Florida paid the St. Petersburg Times $17,000 in attorneys' fees. The youth organization lost a public records lawsuit over access to personnel records and employee disciplinary records. The Times later donated the award to the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information.

JANUARY 1990: Palm Beach Circuit Judge Mary Lupo awarded $4,200 in fees to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in a case against the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The newspaper sought access to HRS documents concerning a complaint by one Palm Beach County hospital against another for an alleged failure to treat a patient.

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