April 23, 2012

Ms. Lillian Guillen Graham

Assistant City Attorney

City of Mesquite

P.O. Box 850137

Mesquite, Texas 75185-0137

OR2012-05732

Dear Ms. Graham:

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# 455645.

The Mesquite Police Department (the "department") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident. You inform the department will redact some information as authorized by Open Records Letter No. 2011-15075 (2011). ⁽¹⁾ You claim portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the claimed exception 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 common-law right to privacy, which protects information if it (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable 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 met. Id. at 681-82. Common-law privacy protects the types of information held to be intimate or embarrassing in Industrial Foundation. See id. at 683 (information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs). Additionally, this office has found some kinds of medical information or information indicating disabilities or specific illnesses are generally highly intimate or embarrassing. See Open Records Decision Nos. 470 (1987) (illness from severe emotional and job-related stress), 455 (1987) (prescription drugs, illnesses, operations, and physical handicaps). Upon review, we find the information you have marked is highly intimate or embarrassing and of no legitimate public interest. Therefore, the department must withhold the marked information under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy. The remaining information must be released to the requestor.

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,

Misty Haberer Barham

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

MHB/som

Ref: ID# 455645

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Open Records Letter No. 2011-15075 is a previous determination issued to the department authorizing the department to withhold, under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 772.118 of the Health and Safety Code, the originating telephone numbers of 9-1-1 callers furnished to the department by a service supplier established in accordance with chapter 772 of the Health and Safety Code, without requesting a decision from this office.

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