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Doing the laundry
By LeslieWilber in For your information
January 15, 2008

Now, I'm not one of those people who loves puns, but my (not so) inner nerd giggled when an editor assigned me this story: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/805/story/180788.html.

Yeah. I'd keep up with my wash if stacks of cash were involved.

But back to the topic I said yesterday I would blog about.  This is a perfect example of how trying to get a little bit of information for a short, simple story morphs into heels-in-the-dirt, tooth-grinding tug-of-war.

The DPS corporal I spoke with wanted to tell me almost nothing, at first. The problem is, there's a lot of information about arrests that's public record -- even before police wrap up investigations. I like to cite a little court case called Houston Chronicle Publishing Company v. the City of Houston. There, Texas'  14th-District appellate court decided officials have to give out the front page of arrest reports in virtually every case.  

I asked for the name of the woman arrested:

Cpl: I don't want to do that.

Me: Isn't it public record?

So we go back and forth for a while, he says he doesn't want to release the woman's name or age, me saying, "But you have to!"

Eventually, I just tell him the Refugio sheriff's department can give me what I need. And they do. Thanks to Lorraine Garcia, administrative assistant and Sheriff Earl Petropoulos for the fast turn-around time faxing me that booking sheet. I appreciate it.