Nasty domestic murder / suicide with 2 minor children left as survivors. Open records request for report, statements and photos. The investigation is closed, and I have no problem with the report and statements. Is there a way to hold the photos back? I'm just concerned that, if released, the children may one day see them. trust me...they don't need to.

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

Sounds to me like the whole file, except for "front-page" information from the incident report, would be excepted from disclosure under Gov't Code sec. 552.108(a)(2) (information dealing with detection, investigation or prosecution of crime in relation to to investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication). Because it's a subchapter C exception, though, you'll need to ask for an AG decision.

The autopsy is public record, but does it have to be released during an investigation? What about copies held by other officials--like the JP who ordered the autopsy?

Thanks to both of you for your help. Armed with your responses, I contacted the insurance company and offered to either play hard ball and tie them up for a period of time waiting for AG opinions and the like...or...they could accept the report without statements or photos. They took the report and are happy.

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

I have a similar ORR pending. The AG's office called today and asked for a letter from the deceased's family objecting to the release of any images on the basis of "constitutional privacy." She said they didn't need anything more specific than that. In this case, we had a surviving spouse, so we had her sign a letter and are sending it off to the AG. You could probably effectively use the guardian of the children to sign the objection letter.