Defense counsel's 26 discovery requests include one for ADULT witness' "full criminal history, arrest record, and warrant check, from NCIC and TCIC, INCLUDING JUVENILE RECORDS, if any." Do FC 58.007 and GC 552 preclude CCP 39.14 discovery of juve records?

The short answer is that potential conflicts regarding confidentiality between the revised 39.14 and other statutes like the ones you've referenced simply haven't been litigated. So we don't know officially what trumps what.

If it's just a fishing expedition, and those documents aren't really material to any issues in the case and won't be helpful to the defense, I think you can argue to your trial judge that there's no reason to breach the confidentiality and see what the ruling is (39.14(a) requires the documents be material to an issue in the case).

But that's entirely just my opinion. Until we get appellate court rulings on this stuff, there is nothing dispositive out there we can rely on.

Thanks Jon.

To me, you comply with a discovery request by producing the material described in the statute. It makes no difference that a request asks for something more. Therefore, unless you feel art. 39.14(h) applies to the information, it is not required to be disclosed. This is particularly true if some other provision of law makes the information privileged.

See also In re State ex rel. Munk, ___ S.W.3d ___ No. 11-14-00268-CV (Tex. App.-Eastland 11/10/14, orig. proceeding) ("We conclude that requiring the State to conduct criminal history searches exceeds the requirements of Brady because the State would be required to independently seek out exculpatory evidence on behalf of the defendant."); Martinez v. State, 727 S.W.2d 133, 134 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 1987).

Moreover, "the compact [i.e., the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact described in 42 U.S.C. sec. 14616] provides that information obtained from the NCIC database may be used only for official purposes and 28 U.S.C. § 534 provides for cancellation of the state's participation in the compact if unauthorized disclosure occurs. When the state accesses the NCIC database, its use of the NCIC records does not change the terms of the compact. The dissemination of NCIC printouts is governed by the compact . . . ." Commissioner of Public Safety, 76 A.3d 185 (Conn. App. 2013); see also 42 U.S.C. sec. 3798g(b); sec. 411.083, et seq., Tex. Gov't Code; sec. 60.06(b), Tex. Code Crim. Proc.