Please note that this ruling by Attorney General Abbott of Texas marks the second occasion in recent months that I can currently recall in which Mr. Abbott's public law office of the State Government of Texas has chosen not to ever cite myself, the public-information requestor, by name, in any portion of an official signed legal letter containing a ruling on documents responsive to a public-information request that I myself had submitted to a government-owned agency in Texas.
On Dec. 16, 2014, the Attorney General of Texas mailed to myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, a hard copy of the following three-page signed legal letter from that State of Texas agency in Austin, Texas, USA. I received that legal letter from the Attorney General of Texas in my U.S. Postal Service mail delivery of Wednesday, December 17, 2014, to my mailbox at the apartment complex where I reside.
All of the documents that were sought from me in the cited public-information request from myself related to a Travis County District Attorney's Office Public Integrity Unit preliminary possible crime case in which I myself, John Kevin McMillan, was the criminal-law complainant against one or more employees or officers of the Austin Police Department of the City Government of Austin in Austin, Texas, USA.
No official criminal-law complaint identification number was ever at any time assigned to that preliminary possible crime case, according to what I was repeatedly informed in writing by officials of the Travis County District Attorney's Office Public Integrity Unit here in Austin. Instead, a very tentative and "in-house" identification number was assigned to my own civilly-worded legal complaint against one or more employees of the Austin Police Department, according to Travis County District Attorney's Office Public Integrity Unit officials here in Austin.)
__________________
December 16, 2014
Ms. Elizabeth Hanshaw Winn
Assistant County Attorney
County of Travis
P.O. Box 1748
Austin, TX 78767
(RE:) OR (Open Records) 2014-22836
Dear Ms. Winn:
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# 547142.
The Travis County District Attorney's Office (the "district attorney's office") received a request for information pertaining to the requestor. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.108 and 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information.(footnote 1) ((FOOTNOTE 1 EXACT VERBATIM TEXT:) We assume that 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 that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.))
Initially, we note the submitted information is subject to section 552.022 of the Government Code. Section 552.022(a) provides, in relevant part:
(a) [T]he following categories of information are public information and not excepted from required disclosure unless made confidential under this chapter or other law:
(1) a completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a governmental body, except as provided by Section 552.108[.]
Gov't Code 552.022(a)(1). The submitted information is part of a completed investigation that is subject to section 552.022(a)(1). Thus, the district attorney's office must release the submitted information pursuant to section 552.022(a)(1) unless it is excepted from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code or is made confidential under the Act or other law. See id. You seek to withhold the information subject to 552.022(a)(1) under section 552.111 of the Government Code. However, section 552.111 is discretionary in nature and does not make information confidential under the Act. See Open Records Decision Nos. 665 at 2 n.5 (2000) (discretionary exceptions generally), 663 at 5 (1999) (waiver of discretionary exceptions), 470 at 7 (1987) (statutory predecessor to section 552.111 subject to waiver). Therefore, the information subject to section 552.022(a)(1) may not be withheld under section 552.111 of the Government Code. However, as information subject to section 552.022(a)(1) may be withheld under section 552.108 of the Government Code, we will consider your argument under section 552.108 for the submitted information.
Section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information concerning an investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication. See 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. See id. 552.301(e)(1)(A) (governmental body must provide comments explaining why exceptions raised should apply to information requested). You state the submitted information relates to a concluded investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication. Based on your representation and our review, we find section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code is applicable to the submitted information. Accordingly, the district attorney's office may withhold the submitted information under section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code.
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 these rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open/orl_ruling_info.shtml, 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 may be directed to the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.
Sincerely,
Cristian Rosas-Grillet
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division
CRG/cbz
Ref. ID# 547142
Enc. Submitted documents
c. Requestor
(w/o enclosures)
___________
(EDITOR'S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS THE EXACT VERBATIM TEXT OF MY SEPTEMBER 26, 2014, TEXAS OPEN RECORDS E-MAIL REQUEST TO THE TRAVIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IN AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, THAT PROMPTED THE TRAVIS COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE ON BEHALF OF THE TRAVIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE TO SUBMIT A FORMAL REQUEST IN WRITING TO TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL GREGORY ABBOTT THAT HE GRANT THE DA'S OFFICE IN AUSTIN OFFICIAL PERMISSION TO WITHHOLD FROM MYSELF AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC NUMEROUS CITED LEGAL DOCUMENTS THAT WERE, IN FACT, RESPONSIVE TO THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC-INFORMATION REQUEST FROM MYSELF.---JKM)
From: John McMillan [mailto:mcmillanj@att.net]
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 1:06 AM
To: Nicole Waggoner; Dallas City Attorney's Office; U.S. Attorney's Office Western District of Texas; Federal Bureau of Investigation San Antonio Div. Austin office; rangers@dps.texas.gov; rangers@txdps.state.tx.us; Jesse Valdez; Attorney General of TX Criminal-Law Division Captain Gregory Lucas; KEYE Investigative Reporter Adam Asracusin; CBS News '60 Minutes' Editors and Reporters; KEYE TV Pedro Garcia; Fox 7 (Austin TX) TV News; investigates@kxan.com; news@statesman.com; Bennie DiNardo Boston Globe; Miami Herald Letters to Editor; DMN Editor Bob Mong; DMN State Editor Mark Edgar; Dallas Morning News Reporter Christy Hoppe; Austin Chronicle Editors; Center for Investigative Reporting; Journal of Crime and Justice; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Dept of Justice; public.information@texasattorneygeneral.gov; Sunset Valley Police Dept. Lt. Richard Andreucci; David Escamilla; City Attorney Karen Kennard City of Austin (TX); Austin Police Association; Michael Lasorsa; Sam Biscoe
Subject: 9-26-14 DA's Office Open Records re: PIU Case 9655-13
September 26, 2014
Dear Travis County District Attorney's Office Open Records Coordinator Waggoner,
This is a Texas Open Records request in which I seek to obtain from you a photocopy or copy or printout of the text of any and all phone messages, the text per se of any and all voice-mail recorded statements, any and all e-mail notes or E-mail letters, letters, findings, and other documents that were each obtained by or received by or sent to or sent by or mailed by or generated by or compiled by the Travis County District Attorney's Office Public Integrity Unit (PIU) in connection with a possible or actual criminal-law case in which I myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, was a cited criminal-law complainant------a PIU case that was originally identified with the tentative in-house identification number of 9655-13.
EXCLUDED from the scope of this public-information request are any and all e-mail letters or letters or voice-mail messages or phone messages or other items that were submitted by or E-mailed by or FAXED by or mailed by myself, John Kevin McMillan, or that were already received by or sent to or provided to left for myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, in connection with the cited possible Travis County DA's Office Public Integrity Unit case.
Travis County District Attorney's Office Public Integrity Unit Sergeant Investigator Lori Carter was the cited investigator for the possible PIU case to which I refer. Travis County Assistant District Attorney Rob Drummond of your Public Integrity Unit served as the prosecuting attorney for that case.
My legal name is John Kevin McMillan. I was born on April 27, 1957, at Lincoln, Nebraska. My social security number is: ..... I am a lifelong single gentleman. I am also a longtime celibate-by-choice adult white non-Hispanic gentleman of English, Scottish, and German ancestry.
I lead a permanently alcohol-free and always-sober and platonically polite lifestyle in which I never consume any tobacco product or any marijuana or any other illicit drug. I might add that I have not consumed any quantity of drinking alcohol on any occasion since the late summer of 1990. I have never consumed any tobacco product on any occasion in my entire life. I have never consumed any quantity of marijuana on any occasion since the late fall of 1984. I have never consumed any illicit drug other than marijuana on any occasion in my entire life.
I have been completely and fully celibate throughout any and all of my own conscious or waking hours ever since and including the date when I moved into my current apartment unit, Apartment 325 at Wind River Crossing Apartments in northwest Austin, in January of 2002.
I am a certified direct descendant of the Rev. William Brewster, who himself served as head chaplain on the Mayflower. Rev. Brewster also served the first full-term Puritan Governor of what is now the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
I have resided at 11411 Research Boulevard, Wind River Crossing Apartments, Building 3, Apartment 325, on a continuous and uninterrupted basis ever since January of 2002. Wind River Crossing Apartments are reportedly owned and managed by the nationwide for-profit realty corporation Westdale, which is reportedly headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Thank you in advance for your prompt and thorough and very diligent and authoritative reply letter providing me with any and all responsive documents.
In that regard, please let me know as soon as possible if you anticipate that the total administrative processing fee you plan to charge me on this might exceed $10. That information from you would enable me to consider narrowing the scope of this public-information request in order to limit my own expenses on this to no more than $10.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan.
11411 Research Boulevard, Wind River Crossing, Building 3, Apt. 325, Austin, Texas, 78759.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
My Blog: http://www.johnkevinmcmillan.blogspot.com
John Kevin McMillan
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