2008 Woodie Awards
Attorney general denies Ranger's request to reveal identity
Student's claim was recanted, but the identity was still concealed.
By Monte Ashqar
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News
Originally published: 4/17/08 at 8:39 PM CSTLast update: 5/16/08 at 9:37 PM CST
The attorney general of Texas has denied The Ranger's freedom of information request to reveal the identity of the female student who claimed she was raped in February 2007.
The Ranger reported Feb. 23, 2007, that a female student claimed she was assaulted by a knife-yielding white male who dragged her into a van and sexually assaulted her.
In the Sept. 14 issue of The Ranger, Deborah Martin, public information officer at this college, said the student recanted her story June 29.
In the same article, Chief Don Adams, of the district's department of public safety, said the investigation concluded that the student was never raped and decided to recant.
In that story, Adams said the department did not seek to file criminal charges against the student and decided to leave the issue alone despite it having wasted the district's resources.
According to the Texas Penal Code, filing a false report is a Class B misdemeanor. It is punishable by a fine not to exceed $2,000 and or 180 days in jail.
When The Ranger requested the incident report from the department in September, the department furnished a sanitized version of the report in which the student's name and any information revealing her identity were redacted.
Sexual crimes victims may under the protection of the law, on the national and state level, have the right to prevent their identity from being revealed to the public through official documents.
The Ranger filed a freedom of information request with the district's department of public safety, arguing that because no sexual offense was committed, the student's identity should be revealed.
The department turned the case over to the district's office of legal affairs, which in turn sent a letter to the office of the attorney general of Texas requesting his opinion on the matter.
On Dec. 3, the attorney general's office responded saying that the student's identity should still be concealed because Section 552.101 of the Texas Government Code excepts from disclosure "information to be considered confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision," and that this section encompasses the doctrine of common law privacy.
According to the response letter, common law privacy protects information under two circumstances, if the information contains highly embarrassing or intimate facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, or that the information is of no legitimate concern to the public.
On April 7, this reporter contacted the press office of the attorney general of Texas, and spoke with a public information officer who kept referring this reporter to the sent letter; he would not disclose his last name.
On April 10, Hadassah M. Schloss, cost rules administrator in the Open Records Division of the attorney general's office, said the only alternative left for The Ranger was to sue the district department of public safety in a Bexar County court for the release of that information and hope to win the case.
No academic action has been taken against the student, said Emma Mendiola, interim dean of student affairs.
The Ranger reported Feb. 23, 2007, that a female student claimed she was assaulted by a knife-yielding white male who dragged her into a van and sexually assaulted her.
In the Sept. 14 issue of The Ranger, Deborah Martin, public information officer at this college, said the student recanted her story June 29.
In the same article, Chief Don Adams, of the district's department of public safety, said the investigation concluded that the student was never raped and decided to recant.
In that story, Adams said the department did not seek to file criminal charges against the student and decided to leave the issue alone despite it having wasted the district's resources.
According to the Texas Penal Code, filing a false report is a Class B misdemeanor. It is punishable by a fine not to exceed $2,000 and or 180 days in jail.
When The Ranger requested the incident report from the department in September, the department furnished a sanitized version of the report in which the student's name and any information revealing her identity were redacted.
Sexual crimes victims may under the protection of the law, on the national and state level, have the right to prevent their identity from being revealed to the public through official documents.
The Ranger filed a freedom of information request with the district's department of public safety, arguing that because no sexual offense was committed, the student's identity should be revealed.
The department turned the case over to the district's office of legal affairs, which in turn sent a letter to the office of the attorney general of Texas requesting his opinion on the matter.
On Dec. 3, the attorney general's office responded saying that the student's identity should still be concealed because Section 552.101 of the Texas Government Code excepts from disclosure "information to be considered confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision," and that this section encompasses the doctrine of common law privacy.
According to the response letter, common law privacy protects information under two circumstances, if the information contains highly embarrassing or intimate facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, or that the information is of no legitimate concern to the public.
On April 7, this reporter contacted the press office of the attorney general of Texas, and spoke with a public information officer who kept referring this reporter to the sent letter; he would not disclose his last name.
On April 10, Hadassah M. Schloss, cost rules administrator in the Open Records Division of the attorney general's office, said the only alternative left for The Ranger was to sue the district department of public safety in a Bexar County court for the release of that information and hope to win the case.
No academic action has been taken against the student, said Emma Mendiola, interim dean of student affairs.
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