That’s right, I support the Seattle Times… in their efforts to unseal court records from Susan Hutchison’s discrimination suit against KIRO TV.
The Seattle Times contends that of 859 pages filed with the court in the lawsuit, 753 are sealed improperly.
Hutchison’s attorney says that the King County Executive candidate supports open records, except, you know, when it comes to herself. For their part, KIRO TV apparently has nothing to hide, their lawyer telling the Times that “the court should unseal the files and has all authority to do that.”
So what’s Hutchison trying to hide?
I’ve been told that much of Hutchison’s suit was based on her claims that she was demoted to noon anchor because she was white, while KIRO responded with details of her abusive, insubordinate and unprofessional behavior on and off the set. Of course, the court records are sealed, so I don’t know if any of that is true. They’re just rumors. But if these rumors aren’t true, and the court records don’t support them, you’d think Hutchison might want clear the record by having it unsealed.
I’m just sayin’….
Heretofore, stories about Hutchison inThe Stranger, horsesass.org, publicola.net, and other blogs haven’t affected her poll numbers.
It will be interesting to see if stories in The Seattle Times have any impact.
Hey, Goldy- why not just put your divorce papers online? Saves someone the trouble of finding them at the courthouse- Dickhead!
In response to John425, Is Goldy running for public office? And do his divorce papers show what his job preformance at his passed jobs where? And I know that my divorce papers are in the public record (not seal court papers) I bet that Goldy’s are to. So what is your point?
For the record, I believe in transparency and open records. Aside from some compelling interest to the contrary, Susan Hutchison’s court records should be disclosed, good, bad, or indifferent though they may be.
Then again…so should all records or information that disclose potential conflicts of interest, untoward relationships, bias, and the like. Let’s start with the names of the HA Happy Hooligans and their interests. After all, what have they to hide?
Don’t give that “I’m not running for office” dodge – if you’re in the process for a comment-penny, then you’re in it for a full pound.
And who pays for all this? And for Publicola? What about all relevent court records for everyone involved? Any recent or outstanding court activity ivolving any of them?
Don’t you think the public would like to know?
The Piper
Dimwit @ 2
Documents filed in court are public records. There is a heavy presumption in the law that the public should have access to such records. After all, taxpayers fund courts, and judges and court personnel are public servants. If someone, like Hutchison, decides to pursue a grievance in court, then she should presume the public will have access to anything filed in court. The potential for embarrassing disclosures to the public is a reason many people do not pursue litigation, regardless of the legitimacy of a grievance. Hutchison rolled the dice. I think she loses on this issue. Go Seattle Times.
John @2,
I believe my divorce papers are a public record, and I’m guessing the ever-snoopy Richard Pope has already perused them. So if there was anything embarrassing there you can be sure that folks would have heard about it by now.
AMUSING ASIDE:
One of the first times I met Richard, he surprised me by walking through the door at Drinking Liberally, and I jokingly greeted him by saying “Richard Pope… what does my criminal record look like?”
Richard pauses, cocks his head quizzically and says, “But, you don’t have one.”
@1
For what it’s worth, as the only Republican in the race she’ll have a base of about 25% of the electorate who will not abandon her even if the reveals vampire fangs and eviscerates the mayor on the steps of City Hall.
Republicans and their bitter, race-based, divisive appeals are failing and will continue to fail in campaigns across the country. When (and I don’t mean if) SuHu is revealed to be the Republican-in-drag that we all know she is, her support among Democrats and independents will vanish like a puff of smoke.
@4
There is a difference between public and private figures even if you don’t want to think so.
@9…DL…
If you insert yourself publicly into public affairs then you are, by definition, a public figure.
Besides…as a general proposition, I don’t like people who hide behind things or throw anonymous bombs, be they real or rhetorical.
If you’re aren’t man enough to attach your name to your opinion, then you aren’t man enough. Same goes for women.
The Piper
@10 Piper: Then women aren’t man enough either?
Just kidding.
I agree with Piper – open up everything. Or just let Pope go look for the dirt….
@6: Goldy
Funny story….kinda…..
Are you speaking to your own lack of manhood, Scott, seeing as how not everybody knows who “The Piper” might be?
10
Again, even though you don’t want to think so, there is a difference. It seems clear that the legal discussion around libel/slander had little to no educative effect.
I’ve never understood why each of you all seem to think that your petty moral standards should be that to which we are all forced to adhere.
I just love these Republicans. Now their tack is to tell us that if we provide paid health care for everyone, IT WILL KILL PEOPLE!
Next up: holding their breath ’til they turn blue.
Also on the Republican menu: oppose all cost-containment measures in health care (such as comparative effectiveness review for treatments, public insurance that can bargain at Medicare’s rates, and so on), and then complain that any plan costs too much.
Perhaps she wasn’t “spiritually ready” for the evening news.
Maybe it’s just me, but SuHu sounds like a self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, self-pitying, vicious ladder-climber. No prisoners, no survivors.
@13…Steve…
I’ve been outed more times on HA than you’ve had to unsuccessfully take ExTeze.
In less than 30 seconds on Google I can be found.
The Piper
@1 Eh….it may be that fewer people read the Times nowadays. Right now, they’re sending us their rag for free after we tried to cancel.
On that note, I wonder if the publishers of whatever’s left of the Eastside Journal count the entire staff at our office in their circulation numbers, stemming from the copies that get dropped, unsolicited, by our back entrance and are then thrown away without even being removed from the plastic bags.
@7 Hell….assuming you’re referring to the mayor of Seattle, if she did that, she’d probably win over two-thirds of the Democrats.
But….golly gee wizbangs. Why are we talking about parties anyway? Isn’t this supposed to be a (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) non-partisan race?
@19 Hey, weasel all you want, you’re the one that said it, not me. Perhaps you’d better go back and amend that post so it’s clear that there’s an exception for “The Piper”.
ExTeze? I didn’t know what you were talking about so I did a search. Apparently nobody else on the planet knows what you’re talking about either.
Have you ever considered that your unwarranted smugness might be, um, unwarranted?
@21 I was gonna say that it would merely solidify her GOP support.
@22…Steve…
Should be ExTenze, and you know it.
Since I blog and post exclusively as The Piper and Piper Scott, monikers easily attributable to my full-name persona, you’ve got to be pretty inept not to be able to find out everything there is to know about me.
The Piper
21 AF
23 GD
OK, OK, then she eviscerates a BABY on the steps of City Hall.
I don’t live in Seattle. You guys really hate ol’ Bulldog Nickels, don’t you?
I met him once when he was first campaigning for mayor, outside of a UW Husky football game where he was working the crowd. I shook his hand and experienced a really immediate and visceral dislike for him. It was strange, but just like “Yecccch!”
I see him now as one of the last of a decade of bullies who have littered our political landscape. The Republicans loved the bullies, but they’re now passe’. Democrats went out and got themselves a few bullies as well. Ed Shultz I put in this category. Stocky, red-faced men with big voices who talk over whoever disagrees with them and who will cheerfully muscle their agenda by any means necessary by the oppositin. Look how many times Nickels has rolled the City Council.
“Should be ExTenze, and you know it.”
Um, whatever. Obviously you’re familiar with it.
Geez, Piper, after you say such a thing, I merely point out that you don’t attach your name to the opinions you express here. Now you tell us that it doesn’t matter in your case because…, er, what was your utterly forgettable and flimsy-assed excuse again?
I’d have no problem with putting everything on the table. What I do have a problem with would be with some of the less savory characters that haunt this site, and what they could potentially do with that information. I don’t need some asshole putting shit on my MySpace or my music blog, trying to hack them, or trying to impersonate me elsewhere in an attempt to embarrass, humiliate, or cause harm to me and mine. And that’s just the assholes that are regulars here!
Though to be totally honest, sometimes I wish my identity could be stolen. It’d probably improve my credit rating…..
No one is buying this faux ‘open records’ bs from the left. You’re against public records when it comes to Cantwell and the gay support group at seattle light or wherever they’re from and FOR open records when it comes to anyone who is not left of Stalin.
If goldsteins assertions about the case are correct, then KIRO clearly did act in that manner. After all they paid her off. If her demotion was merit based they’ll have plenty of documentation and wouldn’t paid her a dime. Everyone knows how race centric lefties are.
Hehehe…
Go Goldy! Freaking awesome.
From the same article.
“They contain inaccurate allegations about Hutchison, Rosen said, but not her rebuttal because the case was settled before she responded.”
FWIW it doesn’t seem correct to present one side only…
@30 I wonder which side it was that decided to settle.
I filed a motion a couple of years back to get Jane Hague’s divorce file unsealed. She must have spent $10,000 or more on attorney fees fighting this. Anyway, it was a lot of work for the judge — mainly because things like social security numbers, medical reports, and copies of financial records used to be filed publicly in divorce cases. (Recent court rules require those particular items be filed under seal.) And all of those had to be redacted.
But practically nothing of the really juicy stuff remained sealed. All of the crappy allegations that Jane Hague and her second husband made against each other were unsealed.
Somehow I doubt that much of Susan Hutchison’s civil lawsuit will remain sealed. At best, I would think information that is currently private (such as social security numbers and medical records) would remain sealed, and perhaps if they were genuine trade secrets, they might remain sealed also.
Has anyone looked at Hutchison’s Wikipedia entry. It is directly lifted from a PR piece. First, why does she rate a Wikipedia page and second, it looks like it need to have some balance added.
FYI Private criminal background check providers that purchased the records under the freedom of information act are not required to seal the records they have. I work for a company named IntegraScan. We have thousands of historical records that were never removed and we publish them under the first amendment just like the News Agencies.
Terry Sweet
Integrascan