Seattle police who went to Jan. 6 still fighting to keep names hidden
SEATTLE – Attorneys for a Seattle man seeking the names of four police officers who attended the violent Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally at the nation’s Capitol are asking that they be held in contempt of court and sanctioned for refusing to follow a King County judge’s order that they identify themselves.
The motion was filed in King County Superior Court on Wednesday, just a day after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied an emergency petition filed by the officers late last month to prevent the release of their identities – and after justices had already unanimously rejected another request in June.
It’s the latest turn in a yearslong legal saga that has seen the officers fight to remain anonymous in state and federal courts. They have lost at every turn, but they haven’t given up.
Neil Fox – an appellate attorney representing Sam Sueoka, a Seattle resident who in 2021 asked for the officers’ identities via a public disclosure request – said the officers filed a writ this week asking the full U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.
Meanwhile, Fox is asking King County Superior Court Judge Sandra Widlan to hold the four officers in contempt and levy daily financial sanctions against them until they obey Widlan’s June 18 order to identify themselves in court documents.
Widlan issued that order after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the officers’ petition and on the heels of a unanimous Washington state Supreme Court ruling saying the officers should be identified.
Six Seattle police officers, identifying themselves in court documents only as “John Does 1-6,” filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Sueoka and others seeking their identities. Two of the officers were identified after they were fired when an investigation showed they trespassed and stood by during what the department called an “active insurrection.” The department found the other four did not commit crimes.
President Donald Trump has since pardoned all but a handful of nearly 1,500 people who were criminally charged for their involvement in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to news reports.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Widlan ordered the officers to abandon their pseudonyms in court documents and identify themselves like any other plaintiff in a lawsuit. In the years since, the state Court of Appeals, the Washington state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have sided with Widlan, although the officers have been allowed to maintain their anonymity during the legal proceedings.
In their emergency petition to Kagan, filed June 25, the officers claimed the high court’s previous order did not address the “immediate harm” they would suffer if their names were added to their lawsuit. The officers claim that publishing their identities in the lawsuit and releasing information about an investigation conducted into their activities during the “Stop the Steal” rally would violate their First Amendment rights.
Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, on Tuesday rejected the officers’ emergency application for a stay to prevent Widlan’s order from going into effect.
Telephone messages and email messages seeking comment from the officers’ attorney, Joel Ard, were not immediately returned.
In the contempt motion, Fox and another of Sueoka’s attorneys, Janet Thoman, wrote that “There is a valid order requiring Plaintiffs to file their complaint using their real names.”
“The deadline to do so has passed, they said.