January 26, 2012

Ms. Janet I. Monteros

Assistant County Attorney

El Paso County Attorney

500 East San Antonio, Room 503

El Paso, Texas 79901

OR2012-01349

Dear Ms. Monteros:

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# 444208 (CA-OP-11-456).

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office (the "sheriff") received a request for information pertaining to case number 201109411 involving the requestor's client. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.103, and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

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 the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information that (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonably person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be satisfied. Id. at 681-82. The type of information considered intimate or embarrassing by the Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation included information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in the workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs. Id. at 683. In Open Records Decision No. 339 (1982), we concluded a sexual assault victim has a common-law privacy interest which prevents disclosure of information that would identify the victim. See also Morales v. Ellen, 840 S.W.2d 519 (Tex. App.-- El Paso 1992, writ denied) (identity of witnesses to and victims of sexual harassment was highly intimate or embarrassing information and public did not have a legitimate interest in such information). Generally, only the information that either identifies or tends to identify a victim of sexual assault or other sex-related offense must be withheld under common-law privacy; however, a governmental body is required to withhold an entire report when identifying information is inextricably intertwined with other releasable information or when the requestor knows the identity of the alleged victim. See Open Records Decisions Nos. 393 (1983), 339; see also Open Records Decision No. 440 (1986). In this instance, the requestor knows the identity of the alleged victim. Therefore, withholding only the alleged victim's identity or certain details of the incident from the requestor would not preserve the subject individual's common-law right of privacy. Thus, the sheriff must withhold the submitted information in its entirety under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy. As our ruling is dispositive, we do not address your remaining arguments against disclosure.

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,

Ana Carolina Vieira

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

ACV/agn

Ref: ID# 444208

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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