Texts of elected and public officials are public records and must be retained for at least two years. Knowingly destroying them before then is a felony under state law.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan speaks at a press conference on March 28, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. The mayor and other leaders from Washington state discussed the deployment of a new field hospital at CenturyLink Field Event Center which is expected to create at least 150 hospital beds for non-COVID-19 cases and will include 300 soldiers from the 627th Army Hospital at Fort Carson, Colorado.
As first reported by the Seattle Times, a spokesperson for Sheriff Cole-Tindall confirmed the department was “in the early stages of reviewing the matter,” offering no additional detail. over the missing texts – a lawsuit that settled earlier this year with the city agreeing to pay nearly $200,000 while creating a series of reforms in releasing and retaining records.With Durkan out of office and Best stepping down, the demand for answers and accountability had somewhat dissipated, but not to Satterberg, who noted multiple people calling for accountability as part of the reason he asked for the criminal investigation.
“It wasn’t clear to me that anyone was going to start this investigation without prompting. Just like the public’s right to an open courtroom, people have a right to know what is in public documents – including text messages,” he added.
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