The city of Dallas has requested an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General of Texas as to whether the city must release records related to the Police Department’s Oct. 8 raid on The Club-Dallas, a gay bathhouse in Deep Ellum.
Dallas Voice has requested, under the Texas Public Information Act, all records related to the 11 arrests that occurred during the raid, as well as all documents related to a complaint DPD says was filed against The Club-Dallas by a citizen that led to the raid.
In a Nov. 2 letter to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott responding to the Voice’s request, Assistant City Attorney J. Middlebrooks wrote that parts of the requested information are protected from public disclosure. A full copy of the letter is below. The AG’s office has 45 days to issue a decision.
Welcome to Dallas, TX. There’s no such thing as a “private” club here. 🙁
CAn’t wait to see the mugshots. I suspect my baby daddy was all up in there but he won’t say!
The Dallas Police routinely posts names, pictures, and other detailed personal information about people arrested for lewd conduct, indecent exposure, prostitution, etc on their website.
Based on the information provided in the letter above, it sounds like the Dallas Police have been breaking the law for years by publishing this information.
Or is it simply the case that the laws don’t apply to the Dallas Police but apply to everyone else?
IF there are any sort of court trials with lawyers for both sides and such, would not the lawyer(s) of those people charged with the crimes be allowed to see any and all of the information requested above, as part of the “discovery phase” of the trial? Of course, that would be AFTER the investigations were complete rather than before they were considered to be “complete”. Might the identity of the “complainant” be revealed, “in the flesh” at such a trial,, plus any details of the particular complaint(s)?
It might be appropriate for the defense attorneys to cross-examine the complainant as to many, many issues, too . . . which might be quite interesting (plus some of the “replies” which might also indicate a good deal of “coaching” before and after the complaint was filed . . .over the phone????). Of course, once the identity of the complainant is known, then serious background checks by the defense attorneys’ staff can proceed as necessary.
Unfortunately, this whole process also puts many other people into the limelight, too, who could well have been unjustly charged for actions in a “private and controlled environment and venue”, in which they had reasonable expectations of privacy from intrusions from or by un-like-minded individuals.
Lil Carl, the same event unfortunately occurs in most cities and towns now and as far back as the early 1900’s even though private clubs exist.. The event is not new and not isolated to your knowledge.