Regent accused of sharing private student info

A House committee investigating University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall for possible impeachment asked its special counsel to determine whether Hall had committed a misdemeanor by sharing confidential student information with his private attorneys.

The action by the House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations came as attorneys for the UT System testified that they thought Hall's insistence on swift production of massive amounts of information was "disruptive" and "unreasonable."

Board of Regents general counsel Francine Frederick sparked speculation that Hall had committed a crime when she testified that Hall inadvertently was given private student information in response to voluminous records requests. When she realized the error, she advised him to return the documents but later learned he shared the information with his lawyers, she testified.

Frederick did not fault Hall for his handling of the documents, saying UT system employees mistakenly released the document in question. "We failed him by allowing this to happen," she said.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, urged the committee, however, to instruct special counsel Rusty Hardin to determine whether Hall violated state law.

"It is a crime to divulge confidential information to others," he said. "When I read this statute, I think a crime has occurred."

Hall's attorney Allan Van Fleet disagreed, saying Hall shared the information "in the context of defending a client who had already been accused of an impeachable offense." He likened the situation to doctors accused of malpractice sharing their patients' information.

The document in question apparently related to charges that Hall's attorneys have made that some lawmakers may be seeking impeachment because the regent uncovered emails showing political influence in admissions decisions.

Frederick said when she read a letter from Hall's attorneys outlining a case of a legislator recommending his son to law school, she asked Hall if he had shared the information with his attorneys. She said he acknowledged that he had.

In testimony last month, Rep. Jim Pitts, who sponsored a resolution seeking Hall's ouster, said he believed he was the lawmaker Hall's lawyers have accused of improperly influencing admissions. He said his son was admitted to several law schools, but only to UT after he took the law school entrance exam a second time.

Pitts and other key lawmakers say Hall should be impeached because he has abused his position as a regent to carry on a vendetta against UT-Austin president Bill Powers.

Tuesday, the committee issued subpoenas for Powers and UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa for its next meeting on Dec. 18.

In other testimony, UT system general counsel Dan Sharphorn described Hall's demands for documents "unreasonable" and said he and Frederick "commiserated" about it.

Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, said the committee investigating whether Hall abused his position as a regent needed legal advice to determine whether Hall violated state law. "We need to kick this over to the Travis County district attorney's office to see … whether that constitutes a breach," he said.

Larson, who previously called upon Gov. Rick Perry to ask Hall to resign, said he remains convinced that Hall should leave the board.

"I still maintain that Governor Perry asking him to resign is the best way to end this deal," he said.