EVERETT — A Snohomish County judge made quick work Tuesday by dispensing with an anonymous demand for public records in a double-murder case.
At issue was the legal conundrum created in May when two unidentified requesters demanded access to Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office records in the disappearance and killings of an Oso couple.
The county declined to provide the records, citing the provision of the state’s Public Records Act that protects active police investigations.
The requesters — who identified themselves in emails only as Kelly and Kishi Thox — challenged the county’s assertion that all the materials were exempt from disclosure as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
The county sought a temporary restraining order, arguing that parsing through all of the case records to determine if some pieces could be released would take detectives away from working the case.
The requesters sought records that zeroed in on people who may have witnessed key events leading up to the couple’s disappearance. Sheriff Ty Trenary publicly wondered whether the pair may somehow be trying to help the suspects in the case, John Reed and his brother Tony, who at the time were on the run.
Superior Court Judge Bruce Weiss approved a temporary restraining order barring the records’ release, at least through July. In the months since, both Reed brothers have been arrested.
Tony Reed surrendered and reportedly led authorities to a shallow grave where they recovered the bodies of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude. He’s already pleaded guilty to rendering criminal assistance. Older brother John Reed, meanwhile, recently was captured in Mexico. He made a first court appearance Monday on charges of aggravated murder.
It is a potential death-penalty case. The public defenders assigned to represent John Reed were in the courtroom monitoring Tuesday’s hearing.
The anonymous requesters were not present. They still are guarding their identities. They recently filed more than 100 pages of paperwork accusing county civil prosecutors of violating the state’s public records act, among other things.
Weiss on Tuesday said those pleadings were legally deficient, in part because the anonymous requesters — now calling themselves Doe#1 and doe#2 — did not sign under oath. The judge said court rules precluded him from considering their assertions.
But he told county attorneys it appeared to him that the Reed investigation is now at a different place than it was when he approved the temporary order.
Deputy prosecutor Sara Di Vittorio agreed. The investigation is no longer active. If somebody filed a records request similar to one that was brought in May, the county would work to provide responsive records in keeping with the law, she said.
Weiss asked Di Vittorio to prepare an order for him to sign, lifting the restraining order and also specifying that the county properly withheld the records in keeping with his earlier ruling.
The county sought the court’s ruling in part to help insulate it against penalties if a legal challenge is brought against how it handled the records request. In recent years the sheriff’s office has been the focus of costly settlements over failures to provide timely access to public records.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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