December 15, 2010

Mr. Dallas Tharpe

Civil Assistant District Attorney

County of Smith

Smith County Courthouse

100 North Broadway, 4^th Floor

Tyler, Texas 75702

OR2010-18807

Dear Mr. Tharpe:

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# 407537 (TRAN: 334480243).

The Smith County Sheriff's Office received a request for report/case # 2010-22366. You claim that the information contained in Exhibit B is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.103, 552.108, and 552.1175 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information made confidential by other statutes, such as section 58.007 of the Family Code, which makes confidential juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. The relevant language of section 58.007 provides:

(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), law enforcement records and files concerning a child and information stored, by electronic means or otherwise, concerning the child from which a record or file could be generated may not be disclosed to the public and shall be:

(1) if maintained on paper or microfilm, kept separate from adult files and records;

(2) if maintained electronically in the same computer system as records or files relating to adults, be accessible under controls that are separate and distinct from controls to access electronic data concerning adults; and

(3) maintained on a local basis only and not sent to a central state or federal depository, except as provided by Subchapters B, D, and E.

Fam. Code § 58.007(c). For purposes of section 58.007, "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See id. § 51.02(2). The information contained in Exhibit B pertains to a fifteen year old child arrested for murder after September 1, 1997. Thus, we find the information contained in Exhibit B involves juvenile delinquent conduct. See id. § 51.03(a) (defining "juvenile delinquent conduct" for the purposes of section 58.007). It does not appear any of the exceptions in section 58.007 of the Family Code apply. Therefore, we find the information contained in Exhibit B is confidential pursuant to section 58.007(c) of the Family Code, and must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾

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, toll free at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Leland Conyer

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KLC/vb

Ref: ID# 407537

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your remaining arguments against disclosure.

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