| August 2005 | |
FrontlinesAG sues Frio County sheriff over recordsAUSTIN — Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a petition in Travis County district court alleging that the Frio County Sheriff’s Office engaged in a deliberate effort to avoid disclosing public records to a citizen who requested them from late 2003 to the present. The petition for writ of mandamus asks the court to compel Frio County Sheriff Lionel Trevino to comply with the law. It contends the sheriff and his employees in Pearsall should have complied with an attorney general’s ruling in March 2004 that the office release all of the requested information concerning the names of those authorized to execute bail bonds in the county, as well as cellular telephone and employment records of sheriff’s office personnel. The petition also alleges the sheriff did not contact the attorney general about the issue in a timely manner, did not release the information as ordered and did not remedy this by filing a lawsuit against the attorney general to put the matter before a court. The citizen who requested information about the administration of the sheriff’s office and bail bond businesses in Frio County, Robert Hererra Jr., made his first written request in November 2003. Since that time, the sheriff’s office has refused to fully release required information as ordered by the attorney general. Deputies explained to Hererra that the records were too voluminous to reproduce in a timely manner with a small staff and that personal information about certain individuals should not be open to public scrutiny. The Attorney General asks the court to also order the sheriff to pay attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation. Galveston withholds police use of force dataGALVESTON — The Galveston Police Department has again asked the attorney general to say it is exempt from releasing records concerning claims of police brutality, The Galveston County Daily News reported. The department argued that all 54 complaints its received over the past five years should be kept secret for one of three reasons: the claim hasn’t been upheld by the Police Officers Civil Service Commission; the claim is the subject of a lawsuit against the city; and release of the claim would interfere with the detection, investigation or prosecution of a crime. The Daily News requested the complaints after a Galveston woman last month filed one saying she saw two officers beat a man who was lying on the ground. Police must release car chase policyAUSTIN — The Harlingen Police Department must release a 1999 policy on police cruiser high-speed pursuits to the Valley Morning Star following an attorney general’s ruling. The newspaper requested a copy of the policy after a local fatal crash in April.
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