TEXAS LAWS

Texas Government Code 552.352

"A person violates BBE (LEGAL), which references TEX. GOV’T CODE 552.352, by distributing
information considered confidential under the terms of the PIA. As discussed hereinabove,
Trustee Weston disclosed information protected by the attorney-client privilege and
considered confidential under the PIA when she distributed the August 26 email initiated
by Trustee Bone that included legal analysis of both Interim GC Wells and Board Counsel
Poneck to individuals outside the District. She also disclosed information protected by the
attorney-client privilege and considered confidential under the PIA when she forwarded
Interim GC Wells’s August 27 email to a member of the State Board of Education.

"A violation of TEX. GOV’T CODE 552.352 also constitutes official misconduct."

- from the Waddell-Serafino Report

- Up to 6 months in jail

- Up to a $1,000 fine

- Official misconduct (removal from office on conviction)

Texas Government Code, Sec. 552.351.

(a) A person commits an offense if the person wilfully destroys, mutilates, removes without permission as provided by this chapter, or alters public information.

(b) An offense under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by:

(1) a fine of not less than $25 or more than $4,000;

(2) confinement in the county jail for not less than three days or more than three months; or

(3) both the fine and confinement.

Texas Government Code, Sec. 552.353.

(a) An officer for public information, or the officer's agent, commits an offense if, with criminal negligence, the officer or the officer's agent fails or refuses to give access to, or to permit or provide copying of, public information to a requestor as provided by this chapter.

(b) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that the officer for public information reasonably believed that public access to the requested information was not required and that:

(1) the officer acted in reasonable reliance on a court order or a written interpretation of this chapter contained in an opinion of a court of record or of the attorney general issued under Subchapter G;

(2) the officer requested a decision from the attorney general in accordance with Subchapter G, and the decision is pending; or

(3) not later than the 10th calendar day after the date of receipt of a decision by the attorney general that the information is public, the officer or the governmental body for whom the defendant is the officer for public information filed a petition for a declaratory judgment against the attorney general in a Travis County district court seeking relief from compliance with the decision of the attorney general, as provided by Section 552.324, and the cause is pending.

(c) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that a person or entity has, not later than the 10th calendar day after the date of receipt by a governmental body of a decision by the attorney general that the information is public, filed a cause of action seeking relief from compliance with the decision of the attorney general, as provided by Section 552.325, and the cause is pending.

(d) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that the defendant is the agent of an officer for public information and that the agent reasonably relied on the written instruction of the officer for public information not to disclose the public information requested.

TGC 552.351 / TGC 552.353

- Up to a year in jail

- Up to a $4,000 fine

- Official misconduct (removal from office on conviction)

TPC 37.10:

- Second-degree felony conviction

- Two to ten years in a state prison