“Various items have gone missing. Some requested items (audio CDs) were claimed to have not existed or were missing but were apparently found after this office's inquiry into the matter.

“It would lead one to conclude somebody finally got serious about looking for the material after the AG inquired about it.”

The petition asks the court to compel Garcia to provide the records that have been deemed public by the AG's office.

The lawsuit alleges:

• Garcia denied the existence of payroll records that were later provided to Harris County commissioners for approval.

• Garcia initially refused to release records relating to disciplinary action taken against Staudt despite an AG's ruling that the records were public. The plaintiffs claim that nothing was released until a formal complaint was filed with the AG's office about Garcia’s pattern of refusal.

• Guthrie sought records regarding the punishment of a former colleague and “respondent Garcia neither released the information, nor requested an Attorney General opinion as required by law. Again, it was only after the undersigned filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General that Respondent Garcia released most of the records.”

• The sheriff's office has been inconsistent with regard to policy. The petition says that Guthrie on April 5 sought any information regarding the punishment of Major James Kirk. Garcia appealed to the AG's office, claiming 17 exceptions, including rules that allow records to be withheld from the public if their release “would interfere with the detection, arrest and prosecution of a violator" or would breach the confidentiality of a crime victim. The plaintiffs say the sheriff was stalling, because a sheriff's office spokesman had said publicly there was no intention to prosecute a crime. The sheriff appealed to the AGs office simply “to delay releasing information" that he knew was public.

The legal department at the county has not had a chance to review the petition yet.

"We cannot comment on the allegations such as they are until we read the official copy and research the issues," sheriff's spokesman Alan Bernstein said. "Depending on what the research shows, we may or may not be able to comment at that point."

The plaintiffs are represented by John Denholm, of the law firm Musick & Musick. Denholm, a former homicide lieutenant with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said that the sheriff's office "has nothing but contempt for open records."

"They just don't [comply]," Denholm said. "They either ignore it or make a bad faith appeal to the attorney general in an attempt to delay it. ...I'm basically sick of it."

Guthrie was fired by the department last year for abusing his authority during an incident at a Humble car wash in which his wife claimed $17 was stolen from her car.

Staudt was fired for allegedly falsifying his payroll records, Denholm said.

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.