From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal.

I'm Al Letson.

Robert Lewis was running on a dirt track in the hills above Berkeley, California,

where every time he finished a lap, he could see clear across the

water to San Francisco.

And so I finished my jog and I'm starting to walk back.

And as I'm walking, I think waiting for the light, I pull out my phone

and check my email and I see I have this email from, it says, public records.

Robert is a reporter with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley.

And this email from the Attorney General of California,

it isn't just a friendly follow-up about some government documents they sent him.

The subject line of this email is notice of inadvertent release of

Department of Justice confidential information and request for destruction of information.

Request for destruction of information.

And then I get to the bottom of the first page and it says, you are here by

and notice that the unauthorized receipt or possession, and they've put or

possession in italics of a record from the Department's ACHS or information

obtained from such a record is a misdemeanor.

They're basically saying you are committing a crime by having these records

and then it goes on to say if you do not destroy them, we will take legal action.

So let me illustrate, the state is threatening to prosecute you for having a document

that the state sent you in the first place.

...