 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
 |
April 8, 2009 Mr. Daniel Bradford Assistant County Attorney Travis County P.O. Box 1748 Austin, Texas 78767 OR2009-04644 Dear Mr. Bradford: 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# 343961. The Travis County Attorney (the "county attorney") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident, including the county attorney's entire litigation file. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. (1) Section 552.108 of the Government Code provides in pertinent part: (a) Information held by a law enforcement agency or prosecutor that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime [is excepted from required public disclosure] if: . . . (4) it is information that: (a) is prepared by an attorney representing the state in anticipation of or in the course of preparing for criminal litigation; or (b) reflects the mental impressions or legal reasoning of an attorney representing the state[.] Gov't Code § 552.108(a)(4). A governmental body that claims an exception to disclosure under section 552.108 must reasonably explain how and why the exception is applicable to the information at issue. See id. § 552.301(e)(1)(A); Ex parte Pruitt, 551 S.W.2d 706 (Tex. 1977); Open Records Decision No. 434 at 2-3 (1986). In Curry v. Walker, 873 S.W.2d 379, 380 (Tex. 1994) (quoting Nat'l Fire Ins. Co. v. Valdez, 863 S.W.2d 458 (Tex. 1993)), the Texas Supreme Court found a request for a district attorney's "entire litigation file" to be "too broad" and held that "the decision as to what to include in [the file] necessarily reveals the attorney's thought processes concerning the prosecution or defense of the case." In this instance, you state, and we agree, that the requestor seeks all county attorney records related to a specific criminal investigation and prosecution, including the county attorney's entire case file. Based on your representations and our review of the submitted information, we agree that section 552.108(a)(4) of the Government Code is applicable in this instance. However, section 552.108 is inapplicable to basic information about an arrested person, an arrest, or a crime. Gov't Code § 552.108(c). Basic information refers to the information held to be public in Houston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e., 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976). Thus, with the exception of the basic front page offense and arrest information, you may withhold the requested information from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code. This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances. This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497. Sincerely, Reg Hargrove Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division RJH/eeg Ref: ID# 343961 Enc. Submitted documents c: Requestor (w/o enclosures)
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. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |