http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20141125/NEWS01/141129456/Man-demands-238-years-of-records-from-sheriffs-office
Man demands 238 years of records from sheriff's office
By Scott North,
provide him with every record in its possession, going back 238
to haul into court anyone who even attempts to make it
public.Snohomish County officials say the request makes little sense
except as an attempt to harass government officials, but insist they
have no option except to begin pulling together materials the man is
sheriff's office employees have been told to hang on to every email,
deputy prosecutor.Even one of the state's biggest advocates for lawful
access to public records believes this particular request is ill
advised.Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open
Government, said the man contacted him, apparently seeking his
My personal advice to him was that he should withdraw that request,
request via email last week.Over the weekend, he sent the county a
followup email making clear he is considering a lawsuit.He'd earlier
visited the sheriff's office, reportedly carrying a video camera and
see sheriff's office policies, and apparently was dissatisfied when
directed to the website where the information can be found.The man's
form available, of each and every document in your agency's possession
of any and every kind whatsoever without exception or limitation
begins at July 4th, 1776, and runs until today's date, November 18th,
on July 4, 1776. That was 85 years before Snohomish County came into
being, and 113 years before Washington was recognized as a state.The
man did not respond to an email from The Herald regarding his records
request.Meeting the man's demands won't be simple, said Sara Di
Vittorio, the deputy prosecutor who supervises the county's response
to public records requests.
Because the man is seeking every sheriff's office record, the county
has had to explore options for retaining materials that it otherwise
routinely discards. That includes recordings of inmate telephone
calls, which are monitored at the county jail, and recorded over after
a brief retention period. Other materials that were no longer needed,
said.While the request appears to be designed to vex, it also appears
to be valid under the law, prosecutors say.Refusal to start gathering
records or otherwise failing to respond could expose the county to
penalties of up to $100 a day, should the man prevail in a public
ignoring or otherwise resisting compliance with a legal records
request, she said.
Mishandling public records requests has proven costly for the county
this year. It recently agreed to pay $575,000 to resolve a public
records lawsuit from Citizens for Sustainable Development, a group
that was seeking information about agricultural policies in the
Snohomish River floodplain. It also agreed to pay $95,000 to resolve a
lawsuit over the jail staff's failure to disclose security-camera
footage relating to a young inmate's death.Di Vittorio in September
told a legislative committee that some are using the records act as a
to the workload created by Anne Block, a prolific records requester
from Gold Bar, but similar headaches have been caused by people on the
county payroll.
was Kevin Hulten, a junior aide to Aaron Reardon who used a pseudonym
to file numerous records requests targeting people he considered his
boss' political rivals.State law generally does not allow governments
to pick and choose how to respond to individual records requesters. In
2011, legislators tweaked the law to generally bar inmates from
collecting fines in records cases and also created a process to enjoin
people serving a criminal sentence from using records laws to harass
or intimidate others.
The city of Everett earlier this year used that provision of the law
to obtain a court order blocking records requests from an inmate they
were able to show was conspiring with others in an attempt to shake
down the city.Nixon, of the open government coalition, said the
records law also contains provisions that should be helpful to the
county now in responding to the request made to the sheriff's
is clear that an agency can provide records in installments. In a
request of this nature, supplying all the materials the man wants
reasonably could take years, Nixon said.
The man is not the same person who has been making headlines in
Seattle for filing records request to obtain police body-camera
video.Meanwhile, the sheriff's office is taking steps to comply with
the records demand from their unidentified records requester.On
Thursday, sheriff's Capt. Tom Davis sent an email to all sheriff's
office employees alerting them of the request and its implications
address the request itself and simultaneously working with
(information systems) to address collection and storage options. We
will let you know if and when there are changes to this
@snorthnews
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child,
miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied,
demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.
Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."
PJ O'Rourke
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