Erie County officials were told by a judge Monday to turn over 10 years worth of records detailing how much they spent responding to jail lawsuits and outside investigations.

State Supreme Court Justice Timothy J. Drury ruled in favor of the New York Civil Liberties Union, granting the organization almost all of the types of information it asked for in its lawsuit against the county and County Attorney Cheryl Green.

The NYCLU filed the lawsuit in June after the Collins administration rejected its Freedom of Information Law request for the records.

The NYCLU sought the information to learn more about Erie County's response to jail-related investigations and legal complaints, including those from the U.S. Justice Department and the State Commission of Correction, over inadequate medical care, violent treatment by jail personnel and poor efforts to protect suicidal inmates from self-harm, among other things.

The director of the NYCLU's regional office in Buffalo called Drury's ruling "a victory for open government."

"At the end of the day, we have a right as citizens of New York State and Erie County to know what we're spending to defend unconstitutional facilities," said John A. Curr III.

Critics say county officials spend tax dollars to block legal efforts to expose and correct inhuman conditions in the Erie County Holding Center in downtown Buffalo and the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden.

"It's hard to feel good about winning something like this," Curr said. "At the end of the day, it's still about these inhumane conditions in facilities that we the people are responsible for.

"We were confident we knew what the law said and allowed," Curr added. "When these things are corrected, then there will be a victory lunch. There wasn't a victory lunch today."

Dennis C. Vacco, a former state attorney general and U.S. attorney, represented the county as outside counsel.

Grant Loomis, a spokesman for County Executive Chris Collins, said county lawyers will meet with Vacco before deciding whether to appeal Drury's decision in whole or in part.

"The county continues to feel the NYCLU request was overly broad, and if the county was to to comply with the request in its entirety, that in itself would be a waste of taxpayer resources," Loomis said.

"The county has been forthcoming regarding the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on outside counsel related to the Department of Justice lawsuit with The Buffalo News and everybody else," Loomis said. "That's all we're going to say until we decide whether to appeal."

Last October, the NYCLU requested records related to the county's spending of tax dollars to defend itself in investigations and legal actions involving conditions at the Holding Center and the Correctional Facility.

Erie County has faced dozens of lawsuits alleging mistreatment of prisoners, many arising from alleged conditions that outside regulators have tried to address.

The county denied the Freedom of Information Law request in January, citing attorney-client privilege, unwarranted invasion of privacy, the broadness of the request and concern that disclosure "could cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the county in both pending and future litigation."

The county then rejected the NYCLU's appeal in February.

The organization's lawsuit accused the county of invoking "plainly inapplicable exemptions -- some of which are not even recognized under law -- in its attempt to circumvent FOIL's principles of open government and public accountability."

The county's reasons for denying the request didn't impress the State Supreme Court justice, either.

"I didn't put much stock in their claims," Drury said.

Ruling from the bench Monday, Drury directed the county to comply with the FOIL request for actual lawsuits and investigations.

The county, he said, must turn over information related to any of the following categories: unconstitutional conditions, excessive force, denial of medical and psychological care, and wrongful injury or death.

The NYCLU is entitled to dollar amounts of settlements and judgments against the county, as well as retainer agreements.

The county, however, does not have to produce records showing how much time county-employed lawyers spent on jail-related lawsuits and investigations.

The NYCLU had asked for records spanning 20 years. The judge ordered 10 years' worth.

The county has 30 days to supply the records, Drury said.

The NYCLU requested records dating back 20 years because it wanted to see how county officials have acted since the organization's involvement in jail issues in the 1990s.

"We wanted a look at what they've done in that time frame," Curr said. "We wanted as complete a look as possible. Ten years doesn't hurt what we're trying to do."

The organization has staff and legal experts who will review the records, assuming Drury's order stands.

The county's resistance to complying with the records request topped prior battles with local governments for information, Curr said.

"This one stands to itself," he said.

"Our last resort is to go to court," he said. "The majority of work we do and successes we have don't involve courtrooms. The law is so substantially in favor of what we seek. And as we found out today, the law was in favor of what we sought."