Seattle officers who attended Jan. 6 rally can’t remain anonymous, Washington high court rules

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police officers who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally and protests at the U.S. Capitol can be identified in public court records, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The ruling says the officers haven’t shown that the public release of their names violates their right to privacy, The Seattle Times reported.

Four officers who attended events in the nation’s capital on the day of the insurrection claimed they are protected under the state’s public records law. Using pseudonyms, they sued over whether an investigation into their activities should be made public. The officers say they did nothing wrong and that revealing their names would violate their privacy.

“We conclude they have not met that burden because they have not shown they have a privacy right in public records about their attendance at a highly public event,” wrote Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis for the majority opinion.

The majority concluded that allowing the case to go forward using pseudonyms is tantamount to sealing a courtroom, which requires specific findings and justification.

When then-Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz learned that six of his officers traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, he ordered the Office of Police Accountability to investigate whether they had violated any laws or department policies.

The investigation found that married officers Caitlin and Alexander Everett crossed barriers set up by the Capitol police and were next to the Capitol Building, in violation of the law, prompting Diaz to fire the pair. Investigators said three other officers had not violated policies and the fourth case was ruled “inconclusive.”

Sam Sueoka, a law student at the time, filed a Public Records Act request for the OPA investigation. The officers, filing under the pseudonym John Doe 1-5, filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop their release.

“At this time in history in particular, with growing efforts to prevent the public from learning information about our government, we are very pleased with today’s Supreme Court decision,” Sueoka said in a statement. “We look forward to obtaining the full records about the investigation into the attendance of Seattle Police Department officers at portions of Stop the Steal.”