January 31, 2008

Ms. Jacqueline Cullom Murphy

Assistant Criminal District Attorney

Civil Section

300 Dolorosa, Suite 4049

San Antonio, Texas 78205

OR2008-01460

Dear Ms. Murphy:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 301112.

The Bexar County Criminal District Attorney (the "district attorney") received a request for the name, address, and amounts paid to all persons receiving checks for jury duty in county and/or district courts for the years 2005 through 2006. You claim that some of the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information. ⁽¹⁾

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses certain information about jurors in criminal cases. Information collected about jurors in the jury selection process is governed by article 35.29 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides:

Information collected by the court or by a prosecuting attorney during the jury selection process about a person who serves as a juror, including the juror's home address, home telephone number, social security number, driver's license number, and other personal information, is confidential and may not be disclosed by the court, the prosecuting attorney, the defense counsel, or any court personnel except on application by a party in the trial or on application by a bona fide member of the news media acting in such capacity to the court in which the person is serving or did serve as a juror. On a showing of good cause, the court shall permit disclosure of the information sought.

Crim. Proc. art. 35.29. Article 35.29 makes confidential certain personal information pertaining only to those individuals who actually served on the petit jury in a criminal trial. In addition to the confidential information listed in article 35.29, "other personal information" which is confidential pursuant to article 35.29 includes the juror's present employer, business telephone number, and spouse's employer. Juror names, however, are not made confidential by article 35.29, and are not "other personal information" that is confidential pursuant to article 35.29. We have marked the types of information that the district attorney must withhold under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with article 35.29 with regard to individuals who actually served on the petit jury.

Section 552.136 of the Government Code provides in part that "[n]otwithstanding any other provision of [the Act], a credit card, debit card, charge card, or access device number that is collected, assembled, or maintained by or for a governmental body is confidential." ⁽²⁾ Gov't Code § 552.136(b); see id. § 552.136(a) (defining "access device"). The district attorney must withhold the account number we have marked under section 552.136.

In summary, the district attorney must withhold the personal information of individuals who served on petit juries under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with article 35.29 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The district attorney must withhold the account number we have marked under section 552.136 of the Government Code. The remaining submitted information must be released to the requestor.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can challenge that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Gilbreath , 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Luttrall

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JL/eeg

Ref: ID# 301112

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Mr. Roger Enriquez

Assistant Professor

University of Texas at San Antonio

501 West Durango

San Antonio, Texas 78207

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

2. The Office of the Attorney General will raise a mandatory exception on behalf of a governmental body, but ordinarily will not raise other exceptions. See Open Records Decision Nos. 481 (1987), 480 (1987), 470 (1987).

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