Lynch releases police documents
Four days after a judge ruled a 15-page police report should be kept from the public, some of the documents were released to a Spokane television station Tuesday by Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch and his private attorney.
The documents, posted Tuesday evening on KXLY.com, confirm previously published reports that Lynch’s vehicles were spotted by police in August in High Bridge Park – an area known for illegal activity.
The report says that on Aug. 11, police saw only Lynch’s sport utility vehicle, not the deputy mayor.
“The driver was described as a white male, early 30s, with dark hair … wearing a tan shirt and black baseball hat,” the report says. Police saw a second SUV registered to Lynch traveling through the park on Aug. 18, but officers didn’t get a look at the driver and didn’t stop the vehicle.
The police investigation concluded officers “had no legal reason” to stop the vehicle on Aug. 11 even though they knew the driver wasn’t Lynch, the registered owner.
Before he took two unexplained medical leaves – last September and again after Christmas – Lynch told his boss, Mayor Dennis Hession, that he was in High Bridge Park in August checking on an increased police presence, which he had ordered.
As deputy mayor, Lynch, who remains on sick leave, oversees the Police Department.
In reporting on the release of the documents, KXLY-TV reporter Karina Shagren did not include statements from Lynch or his attorney, who was said to have been the source of the document but was not identified by name in the broadcast report. The station also provided no new information on Lynch’s medical leave.
“We did not agree to restrictions of any kind in order to receive this report,” Jerry Post, the news director for the television station, said in an e-mail after KXLY broadcast the story and posted the documents on the Web. He said they were obtained from Lynch’s attorney, James King.
The television report also did not divulge how Lynch and his attorney came into possession of documents that Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno said last Friday were “highly offensive” and contained no issues of legitimate public interest.
Assistant City Attorneys Milt Rowland and Rocky Treppiedi told the judge the police investigation, which they said wasn’t an internal affairs investigation, was contained in 15 pages, not just six pages, as posted by KXLY.
“As for the length of the report, we’re not aware of any additional pages beyond the six that we possess,” Post said.
The judge said from the bench that the deputy mayor could release the documents if he chose to do so after the two assistant city attorneys argued that the police records should not be released to The Spokesman-Review under the state’s public records law. The newspaper, in a public records lawsuit filed in December, asked the city attorney’s office to produce the documents as the official gatekeeper for public records requests.
“The release by Lynch calls into question the representations that were made (on Friday) by the city attorneys in court,” said newspaper attorney Duane Swinton.
“Obviously, Lynch had no privacy concerns with regard to the report or he wouldn’t have released it, which was the premise of the court’s decision,” Swinton said. “His release of the report reflects exactly what we told the court – that the report didn’t invade his privacy and that it wasn’t defamatory.”
Spokesman-Review Managing Editor Gary Graham said the paper would continue to press for release of the full report. “Our television competitors bragged on air that they have the report, but our question is, ‘What happened to the other nine pages?’ The six pages posted by KXLY certainly don’t contain the so-called highly offensive material cited last week by the judge.”
The mayor couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. At Monday night’s City Council meeting, City Attorney Jim Craven told council members his office used its resources to keep the police records from being released because Lynch had a right to privacy.
City Councilman Al French, who announced Tuesday he is running for mayor against Hession, said the release of the documents raises questions.
“How’d he get a copy?” French said of the deputy mayor. “It’s curious how somebody on medical leave can continue to do his job and get a copy of a report a judge says the public has no right to see.
“It’s either a public document or it should be restricted as the judge ruled,” French added. “You can’t have it both ways.”
Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Monday night she was surprised by the leak of the document to the television station.
“I haven’t a clue how they got it,” Kirkpatrick said, adding that there was no pressure on her from Lynch to release it.
“He didn’t lean on me. I’m not easily leaned on,” she added.
Lynch did not return a message left at his home.
Access to the police reports was sought by The Spokesman-Review in a public records suit it filed in December after the Police Department and city attorney’s office refused to release the files.
“Jack Lynch wasn’t a party to the litigation,” French said. “So, if he isn’t a party, how does he get a copy of these police records, and does it give him the authority to release it? It seems to me you’re flying in the face of the judge’s ruling.”