成人X站

MYNORTHWEST NEWS

Lawsuits reveal city is missing June 2020 text messages from Seattle mayor, SPD leaders, fire chief

May 10, 2021, 7:22 AM | Updated: 12:04 pm

police, missing text messages...

Police Chief Carmen Best, center, speaks at at a news conference, Monday, July 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Lawsuits filed against the City of Seattle related to protests that took place last June revealed that the city is missing text messages from Mayor Jenny Durkan, then-SPD Chief Carmen Best, Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, and several other SPD leaders.

Mayor鈥檚 office avoided answering records requests for missing texts

One of the lawsuits — brought on behalf of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County — had sought to use texts among city leadership to paint a picture of behind-the-scenes communication that led to the frequent use of tear gas during protests early last summer. Another filed by Capitol Hill residents and businesses had looked to decipher the series of events leading up to SPD abandoning the East Precinct last June, and the eventual creation of the CHOP.

Concurrently, there’s an investigation into a whistleblower complaint revealed last week that Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office failed to properly handle a series of public records requests, after it discovered that 10-months of the mayor鈥檚 text messages between August 2019 and June 2020 had gone missing. According to the city attorney’s office, that gap was caused by “a retention setting in her iPhone.”

Lawsuits against the city subsequently revealed that Durkan’s texts weren’t the only ones among local leaders that had disappeared, with the list also including Best, Scoggins, and multiple members of SPD’s command staff, according to .

ACLU files contempt motion against Seattle over SPD protest response

The city attorney’s office told the Times it is “still ascertaining” how Best’s text went missing, while Scoggins was said to have been “locked out of his phone because of password issues.” Texts among members of SPD’s command staff from last June allegedly went missing due to “password and device management software problems.”

Neither Seattle Fire nor SPD have provided an explanation into how texts from their respective leadership disappeared.

City officials are required by law to preserve their correspondence for public records.

MyNorthwest News

king county lawsuit...

Frank Sumrall

Seattle judge blocks Trump administration’s new federal grant conditions

King County joined seven other jurisdictions in a lawsuit against HUD and FTA after more conditions were added in order to grant funding to local governments.

1 hour ago

tacoma power outage...

Julia Dallas

Power outage impacts over 10,000 customers in the Tacoma area

A Tacoma power outage impacts more than 10,000 customers, as reported by Tacoma Public Utilities on Wednesday.

3 hours ago

Hood Canal Bridge...

Chris Sullivan

WSDOT ‘left with a mystery’ after Hood Canal Bridge’s emergency closure

A full inspection of the Hood Canal Bridge on State Route 104 in Poulsbo gave WSDOT engineers nothing to explain Monday's extended closure.

3 hours ago

Trump UW anti-Semitic violence...

Jonah Oaklief

Trump launches task force following alleged anti-semitic violence at UW

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it has created a task force to investigate alleged acts of antisemitic violence at the University of Washington (UW) and its affiliated institutions.

4 hours ago

child offenders wa operation...

Frank Sumrall

7 WA residents arrested as part of operation capturing 205 child offenders

More than 200 child sex offenders were arrested in the nationwide crackdown called "Operation Restore Justice."

6 hours ago

13-year-old Everett boy...

Shaun Garrett, 成人X站 7 News

Braided cable kills 13-year-old Everett boy riding electric scooter through grass

A 13-year-old Everett boy who was critically injured after hitting a braided cable while riding his electric scooter has died from his injuries, according to Everett Police.

7 hours ago

Lawsuits reveal city is missing June 2020 text messages from Seattle mayor, SPD leaders, fire chief