OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Seattle police officers who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol were never entitled to anonymity, the state's highest court has ruled.
The Washington Supreme Court on Feb. 13 ruled against cops trying to block the disclosure of their activities on Jan. 6, finding they can no longer proceed anonymously in court and aren't entitled to an injunction against the release of records.
Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis wrote the majority opinion that overturned a ruling by a lower appeals court, finding the officers aren't entitled to a privacy exception in the state's Public Records Act and their First Amendment rights wouldn't be violated.
"(T)he requested records relate to their activities at a highly publicized and public event," Montoya-Lewis wrote.
"On this limited record, it appears that the officers have not demonstrated a likely privacy interest in such information under either theory, so they have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits that the information falls under any exemption to the release of public records under the PRA."
The crowd at the Jan. 6 rally was upset with the results of the 2020 Presidential election, believing Joe Biden had stolen the vote from Donald Trump. After the FBI asked the public for help identifying those in attendance, it was revealed six Seattle Police Department officers were there.
Two had posted photographs of themselves on Facebook. Four self-reported their presences there to the Office of Police Accountability. Requests for public records came in, and SPD told those six officers it intended to produce public records in response.
They sued in King County Superior Court to block that from happening and earned a temporary restraining order, but were denied a preliminary injunction. They appealed.
In the meantime, OPA released its findings but did not include names. Two were charged with misconduct because they were caught on camera in restricted areas and were subsequently fired.
The other four committed no misconduct, OPA found. Three denied going into the Capitol, and evidence showed they went to a restaurant while the riot took place.
The fourth officer had possibly entered a restricted area but no evidence confirmed he was trespassing.
The officers' identities became public, said Sam Sueoka, who requested the records. He moved to bar the use of pseudonyms in the case because those officers did not receive the level of harassment they expected.
The trial court found that attending a public rally is not the type of activity that is "inherently cloaked in privacy." On appeal, the state Court of Appeals granted the preliminary injunction by finding the First Amendment prohibits disclosure of their identities and did not consider limits on the state PRA.
The state Supreme Court reversed, striking the preliminary injunction and ordering their actual names be used in further litigation.
One case the high court looked at involved public employees at a bachelor party at the Spokane Police Guild Club that violated liquor board regulations. A Liquor Control Board report should be public, that decision said, because there was "no personal intimacy involved in one's presence or conduct at such a well-attended and staged event which would be either lost or diminished by being made public."
The Seattle police officers did not point to any evidence they attempted to conceal their identities at the Jan. 6 rally.
"(I)nstead, they made the choice to attend a public event where they could expect to be seen by others," Montoya-Lewis wrote.
"These records related to their participation at a public rally at the National Mall along with 45,000 other attendees, at a highly publicized event they could expect would be documented by news media."