Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington’s Court of Appeals has granted a request by six Seattle police officers to temporarily extend a restraining order barring the release of records that would identify them as participants in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally that fueled a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Appeals Court Commissioner Jennifer Koh’s ruling lets a restraining order remain in place pending the court’s review of a King County judge’s ruling that would allow the City of Seattle to disclose the records, The Seattle Times reported.
Koh wrote in a three-page ruling that a “brief additional delay is justified.” The appeals court will expedite the case, with a hearing set for April 2.
The officers have sought to block disclosure of the records since Feb. 23, suing after the city voluntarily notified them it planned to release personnel and investigation records to people who had requested them.
The officers obtained a restraining order to temporarily stop the record release, but lost their bid for a preliminary injunction last week. King County Superior Court Judge Sandra Widlan ruled their argument that public records law exceptions for privacy rights and materials related to open investigations of public employees didn’t apply because the officers had voluntarily attended a highly public event outside the workplace.
But Widlan agreed to extend the temporary restraining order to give the officers a chance to ask the appeals court to review her ruling.
All of the officers have acknowledged attending the Jan. 6 rally as an exercise of “their constitutional rights to free speech.”
At that event, Trump pressed his baseless case for overturning the election to the crowd, fueling the grievances of a mob that then stormed the Capitol and disrupted the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
But, the officers claimed, none of them participated in the Capitol riot or in any wrongdoing while in Washington, D.C.
At least five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died as a result of the violence at the Capitol, and two other officers killed themselves after. More than 300 people have been charged with federal crimes.
Two days later, after images surfaced on social media of them at the rally, two officers were placed on leave pending an investigation. Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz later ordered officers who had attended the event to report their participation. Four other officers did, and remain working. The city’s Office of Police Accountability is investigating whether any of the officers broke laws or department rules.
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