October 17, 2012

Mr. Charles Galindo Jr.

Assistant Attorney General

Assistant Public Information Coordinator

General Counsel Division

Office of the Attorney General

P.O. Box 12548

Austin, Texas 78711-2548

OR2012-16586

Dear Mr. Galindo:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 468761 (PIR No. 12-34080).

The Office of the Attorney General (the "OAG") received a request for the investigation concerning the Wichita County Water Improvement District #2 election in May 2010. The OAG asserts the information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.107, and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the OAG's claimed exceptions to disclosure and have reviewed the submitted sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Section 552.108(a)(2) excepts from disclosure information concerning an investigation that concluded in a result other than conviction or deferred adjudication. Gov't Code § 552.108(a)(2). A governmental body claiming section 552.108(a)(2) must demonstrate the requested information relates to a criminal investigation that has concluded in a final result other than a conviction or deferred adjudication. The OAG explains Exhibit B pertains to a case investigated by its Law Enforcement Division that concluded in a result other than conviction or deferred adjudication. Therefore, the OAG has shown the applicability of section 552.108(a)(2) to Exhibit B.

However, section 552.108 does not except from disclosure basic information about an arrested person, an arrest, or a crime. Id. § 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. Civ. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976). Thus, except for basic information, the OAG may withhold the information from disclosure based on section 552.108(a)(2). Because section 552.108 is dispositive, we do not address the OAG's other assertions.

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,

Yen-Ha Le

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

YHL/som

Ref: ID# 468761

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume 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 those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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