US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

578.387. 1. For the purpose of any investigation or proceeding relating to public assistance unlawfully received or an application for public assistance unlawfully tendered, the director of the department or any officer designated by him and/or the attorney general for the state of Missouri or any officer designated by him may administer oaths and affirmations, subpoena witnesses, compel their attendance, take testimony, require answers to written interrogatories and require production of any books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, agreements or other documents or records which the director of the department and/or the attorney general deem relevant and material to the inquiry.

2. In the case of contumacy by, or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to, any person, the circuit court of any county of the state or the city of St. Louis, upon application by the department director and/or the attorney general may issue to the person an order requiring him to appear before the department director, or the officer designated by him, and/or the attorney general, or the officer designated by him, there to produce documentary evidence if so ordered or to give testimony or answer interrogatories touching the matter under investigation or in question in accordance with the forms and procedures otherwise authorized by the Rules of Civil Procedure. Failure to obey the order of the court may be punished by the court as a contempt of court.

3. Information or documents obtained under this section by the director of the department and/or the attorney general shall not be disclosed except in the course of civil or criminal litigation or to another prosecutorial or investigative agency, or to the divisions of the department.

4. Anyone improperly disclosing information obtained under this section is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

5. The provisions of this section do not repeal existing provisions of law and shall be construed as supplementary thereto.

(L. 1987 S.B. 259 § 7)