Reminder: August 19 - Yousoufian v. Sims PDA lawsuit

UPDATE AND ONE HOUR TIME CHANGE: (posted at 11:06 PM. Wednesday night, August 17):

AS OF JUST HOURS AGO, THE TIME FOR THIS FRIDAY'S COURT DATE HAS BEEN MOVED UP, TO A START TIME OF 9 AM, VS. 10 AM INDICATED BELOW.

Armen Yousoufian

Reminder re: August 19, 10 AM (NOTE: NOW 9 AM), court hearing - the next, and possibly final, significant public event in my long running lawsuit against Ron Sims and King County over Public Disclosure Act violations. (This is the lawsuit that drew me into realizing the extent to which government all too often conceals information, documents, etc. from the citizenry, and all the implications thereof on our democracy.)

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and anyone else I thought might be interested in attending the court session next week, on Friday morning, August 19: this is a reminder and re-transmittal for some of you, and reiterates what is posted at this blog at:
http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/08/update-on-my-public-disclosure-act.html

Subject: Friday, August 19, 10 AM (NOW 9 AM) courtroom "round #4" in Ron Sims/King County Public Disclosure Act litigation; links to information on this case.

Re: Update on the Ron Sims/King County Public Disclosure Act litigation; and, material to review, should you want to attend the August 19 court hearing on remand and have some background on what's happened to date since 1997.

To: those who have been following my 8 year long saga and litigation against Ron Sims/King County over violations of the Washington state Open Records Act (involving production of sports stadium records I requested in 1997 and whose existence was denied for four years), and including folks I recently met who I thought might be interested,

(Please forward to anyone you think might be interested.)

Item: What is happening next that is available for the public to observe:

What: Courtroom round #4 - back in King County Superior Court, under orders of remand from the Court of Appeals (January, 2003 decision) and Washington State Supreme Court (September, 2004 decision)

When: Friday, August 19, 2005, 10 AM (NOW 9 AM) to approximately Noon

Where: King County Courthouse, 3rd and James, downtown Seattle, courtroom of King County Superior Court Michael Hayden, Room East #863, Seattle

Background: Since the state Supreme Court ruled in my favor in September, 2004 (the third, and increasingly favorable ruling in the course of this litigation), we have slowly been working our way toward courtroom round #4 - back in King County Superior Court, where it all began years ago.

Friday morning, August 19 we will have a hearing which will pick up where the 2001 trial in King County Superior Court left off (under a different judge, as the original judge has since retired), as modified by the decisions in the Court of Appeals and the Washington Supreme Court.

This proceeding will include oral argument by my attorneys (and rebuttal by King County's attorneys) as part of the process of the judge making a final determination of the level of daily penalties to be assessed against King County.

Please come and observe these proceedings, and show the court that the public is concerned about the Open Records, or Public Disclosure, Act.

If you'd like to do some "homework" to become familiar with what has happened to date, or refresh your memory, in advance of the August 19 proceedings, please consider checking my website (www.ArmenYousoufian.com ) and/or the following recent postings at this blog for background information on what's happened to date, to read the briefs for this remand, etc:

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/08/update-on-my-public-disclosure-act.html
http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/07/washington-supreme-court-favorable.html
http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/07/9-year-olds-question-leads-to-civics.html

More updates and information may be posted at this blog - http://www.yousoufian.blogspot.com/ - between now and August 19. I urge you to check the blog from time to time, and especially by no later than the day before the August 19 hearing, and scan it for postings related to this hearing, or any possible changes to the schedule. (For example, many were alerted by email or by reading the blog on July 27 that the original court date of July 28 was changed at the last minute when the judge threw his back out and we had to reschedule.)

I will also post updates after August 19 at this blog (http://www.yousoufian.blogspot.com/ ), including the judge's decision, once it is released. The decision will no doubt make it into the media, as have all the prior decisions.

Armen Yousoufian

http://www.ArmenYousoufian.com/ (for lots of material on this case)http://www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com/ (this blog, which includes updated material on the PDA litigation, and which goes beyond what is at the website)