April 18, 2012

Ms. Linda Pemberton

Paralegal

Office of the City Attorney

City of Killeen

P.O. Box 1329

Killeen, Texas 76540-1329

OR2012-05501

Dear Ms. Pemberton:

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# 451331 (Killeen Police Department ID# W007303).

The Killeen Police Department (the "department") received a request for a copy of a suicide note left by a named individual prior to the individual's attempted suicide. You claim the submitted 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.

We begin by noting that some of the submitted documents are not responsive to the instant request for information because they are not the requested suicide note. We have marked these documents, which the department need not release in response to this request, and this ruling will not address that 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 is highly intimate or embarrassing such that its release would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person and the public has no legitimate interest in it. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668 (Tex. 1976). The types of information considered intimate and embarrassing by the Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation include 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.

The requested information contains information that is considered highly intimate or embarrassing and is not of legitimate concern to the public. In most cases, only this information would be excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy. In this instance, however, the requestor knows the nature of the incident in question as well as the identity of the individual involved. Therefore, withholding only the nature of the incident would not preserve the individual's common-law right of privacy. Accordingly, to protect the privacy of the individual to whom the information relates, we find that the department must withhold the submitted suicide note in its entirety under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. ⁽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,

Melanie J. Villars

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

MJV/dls

Ref: ID# 451331

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the requestor is a representative of the United States Army. However, the requestor has not directed our attention to any federal or state law that would authorize the release of the requested records in this instance.

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