Sacramento Superior Court Judge Orders City To Preserve 15 Million Emails For Review

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A battle over emails in Sacramento came to an end today in court. The city of Sacramento wanted to get rid of millions of emails, but one group petitioned to have them saved through a public records request.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge granted the request Friday to save the emails from being deleted.

The plaintiffs tried to add to the list of 15 million emails additional emails dating back to 2008, but the judge denied the request, saying it was outside the scope of what the petitioners had originally requested.

The judge also ordered the petitioners pay $80,000 in damages to the city's aging email system. The city had scheduled a mass deletion earlier this month.

"Now it's something we're going to work with. We're happy with the 15 million. It is a big victory for the public. But at the same time, the city really squeaked by by claiming damages they're not going to face," said Paul Boylan, the plaintiffs' attorney.

"If the other side had engaged with us in a reasonable process, we would have produced necessary records up to and including the 15 if they had engaged with us in the timing that had been laid out. They refused to do that, and unfortunately the court had to decide," said city of Sacramento attorney James Sanchez.

The judge did not say when the city would go ahead with the purge with the emails.