Last Sunday, we published a lengthy investigative report by staffer Meghan Malloy that looked into an alleged puppy mill that was operating in Somerville, and looked into how state and local officials had regulated the dog-breeding operation prior to 2008.

I don't want to recite the story in this blog. If you haven't read it, here's the link to Malloy's story.

However, I did want to tell you how we used Maine's Freedom of Access laws to get the documents at the heart of this report.

First, you should know that the state initially rejected written request for documents related to this kennel, filed by Malloy and then a follow-up that I filed. The kennel's owner, Fern Clark, faces five felony and other criminal charges for the January 2008 offenses.

State officials, doing something that is somewhat common, cited the criminal case as a reason to decline our request for records. There is an exception under Maine's Freedom of Access law that says documents that are part of an active criminal case can be withheld from public view.

We pressed on, however, because in this case the state was saying we could not get access to documents that would have been public -- for months and years prior to Clark's arrest last January. We didn't think the state was right to seal what previously were public records.

Our newspapers hired Portland attorney Sigmund Schutz, of Preti Flaherty in Portland, to write a letter to the state Agriculture Department and Attorney General pressing the case that these were public records.

Schutz's letter, sent last March, indicated the newspapers may be willing to go to court if the state stood by its position, that these records were now confidential. Schutz also cited a previous case where government officials actually asked themselves whether releasing a previously public document, in a case where there was a recent criminal charge, would truly jeopardize the criminal case.

Fortunately, Schutz's letter was persuasive. The Attorney General agreed to release the records and last Sunday's report became possible.

I write this not to claim victory or anything, but just to show that it isn't always easy to get the records we need -- or the public needs -- to get to the bottom of a situation or a previously existing condition (in this case).

Sometimes, we have to make our case with persistence. We did this time and, thanks to our attorney and some open-minded state officials, we uncovered many more facts.