E.J. SALCINES, STATE ATTORNEY HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLANT/RESPONDENT,
v.
TAMPA TELEVISION, D/B/A WXFL-TV, AND THE TRIBUNE COMPANY, APPELLEES/PETITIONERS; E.J. SALCINES, STATE ATTORNEY, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLANT/RESPONDENT, V. STATE EX REL. WTSP-TV, INC., APPELLEES/PETITIONERS; E.J. SALCINES, STATE ATTORNEY, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLANT/RESPONDENT, V. GAYLORD BROADCASTING COMPANY, D/B/A TELEVISION STATION WTVT-CHANNEL 13, APPELLEES/PETITIONERS

Fla. 2d DCA | 1984-07-18
No. 84-1138
SCHEB, A.C.J., and SCHOONOVER, J., concur.
454 So. 2d 639 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1984) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Holding

The court held that a subpoena requesting records that on its face identifies confidential informants or sources is exempt from disclosure under the Florida Public Records Act.


Headnotes

[1] Information revealing the identity of confidential informants or sources is exempt from disclosure under Florida law, regardless of whether the informants are currently a…

[2] A subpoena that, on its face, identifies or purports to identify confidential informants or sources is exempt from disclosure under the Florida Public Records Act.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellees sought a writ of mandamus to compel appellant to allow access to a subpoena that commanded production of records pertaining to individuals i…

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Opinion of the Court
CAMPBELL, Judge.

CAMPBELL, Judge.

Appellant, E.J. Salcines, State Attorney, Hillsborough County, Florida, seeks review of the order of the Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit which granted appellees’ petitions for writs of mandamus. The order granting the writs ordered appellant to allow appellees access to a subpoena of the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, which commanded Julio Sanchez, as Custodian of Records for the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office to appear before the Federal grand jury and produce certain records pertaining to certain named individuals. We reverse and quash the order of the trial court which granted the writs.

In his argument on this appeal, appellant advances three points upon which he urges reversal:

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT THE SUBPOENA SOUGHT BY AP-PELLEES/PETITIONERS IS A PUBLIC RECORD UNDER THE FLORIDA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT?

II.WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO CONDUCT AN ADEQUATE IN CAMERA HEARING MANDATED BY THE FLORIDA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT?

III.WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT THE EXEMPTIONS STATED IN SECTION 119.07(3)(d), (e), (f) and (g), FLORIDA STATUTES, DO NOT APPLY TO THE SUBPOENA IN THIS CASE?

Because we determine that the subpoena comes within the specific exemption of section 119.07(3)(e), Florida Statutes (1983), as argued in appellant’s point III, we are not required to decide point I, and point II is by our decision rendered moot.

In the proceeding below, appellant offered to testify ex parte and in camera before the trial judge in order to explain how the requested subpoena came within the exemptions of section 119.07(3). Appel-lees objected and the trial court concluded that to do so would have been improper. Appellant concluded that to testify in open court or in camera with appellees' counsel present, would violate the very exemptions he sought to protect. We are inclined to agree, under the facts of this case, that to testify openly would disclose the information exempted by statute. The trial judge, in the order appealed from, stated he had evaluated the exemptions allowed in section 119.07(3)(d), (e), (f) and (g), and found no basis for the asserted positions. We find this to be error. The requested subpoena, on its face, requests the production of two categories of documents. The first category names individuals that either by the very wording of the subpoena were identified as confidential informants, or were at least purported to be so by the subpoena. The second category relates to documents in connection with an individual whom the subpoena, on its face, identifies as a possible source of criminal intelligence or investigative information. Thus, because the subpoena, on its face, identifies or purports to identify confidential informants or sources, it was not necessary that the trial judge receive testimony to determine that the exemption of section 119.07(3)(e) is applicable to the subpoena. Section 119.-07(3)(e) provides that “[a]ny information revealing the identity of confidential informants or sources is exempt from the provisions of subsection (1).”

We emphasize our conclusion that the subpoena, in and of itself, reveals this information because we perceive that in many circumstances it might require testimony to establish the application of the exemptions. We also point out that this was not a criminal proceeding where due process requirements might dictate the disclosure to a defendant of the identity of a confidential informant as contemplated and discussed in cases such as Treverrow v. State, 194 So. 2d 250 (Fla.1967); Munford v. State, 343 So. 2d 67 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977), reversed on other grounds, 357 So. 2d 706 (Fla.1978); and Spataro v. State, 179 So. 2d 873 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965).

In considering the exemptions granted in section 119.07(3)(e), we have concluded that neither the statute nor case law dictates that the exemptions from disclosure relate to confidential informants or sources who are currently being used as such, or whose identity has not previously been disclosed. We therefore conclude that it matters not that the informants or sources are no longer active or may have, through other sources, been identified as such. Section 119.07(3)(e) applies the exemptions to any information revealing identity. It does not specify not previously identified, nor current “confidential informants or sources.”

Finally, for the purposes of this decision, we have assumed without deciding that the subpoena is a public record under chapter 119, Florida Statutes (1983).

We therefore reverse and quash the order of the trial court which granted appel-lees’ petitions for writs of mandamus.

SCHEB, A.C.J., and SCHOONOVER, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Christy v. Palm Beach Cnty. Sheriff's Off., 698 So. 2d 1365 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
    …undercover personnel of any criminal justice agency.” § 119.07(3)(e), (e). Although appellant claims that he already knows the name of the confidential informant used in his ease, we conclude that that is immaterial. In Salcines v. Tampa Television, 454 So. 2d 639, 641 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), the appellate court held that the confidential informant exemption also applies to informants who are no longer active or may have been identified as informants from other sources. We agree with this interpretation. Thus, de…
  • Rameses, Inc. v. Demings, 29 So. 3d 418 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010)
    …“criminal investigative information” found in section 119.011(3)(a) and (b), which specifically excludes “documents given or required by law ... to be given to the person arrested.... ” Our sister courts’ decisions in Salcines v. Tampa Television, 454 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), and Christy v. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, 698 So. 2d 1365 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), demonstrate the continued viability of the exemptions contained in section 119.071 to protect the identity of undercover law enforcement pers…
  • City OF ST. Petersburg v. Romine, 719 So. 2d 19 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998)
    …disclosed at a criminal trial. The City contends that this court has held that previous disclosure of a confidential informant’s identity does not remove that information from the exemption in section 119.07(3)(c). See Salcines v. Tampa Television, 454 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984). In Tampa Television, the trial court ordered the disclosure pursuant to the public records law of a subpoena which on its face identified or purported to identify confidential informants. This court reversed the order of disclosu…

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