Verdict in my PDA case; good vs bad news; awarded another $300,000; but...

“Liberty lies in the hearts and minds of men and women;when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it…” —Judge Learned Hand

FYI, this is the general emailing I sent my list on Sunday, August 28, 2005, announcing the latest development in my PDA lawsuit.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Summary: Verdict released Wednesday, August 24, 2005 for total award against King County of $380,000, including additional nearly $300,000 awarded in "Round #4"; finally recovering enough to cover the (incredible amount of) $330,000 in legal costs incurred to successfully sue King County; despite this record outcome, it is a disaster for future PDA requestors; and, despite this record fine against Ron Sims' office for "gross negligence" it gets only "back page" coverage in the press; what you can do to help.

Subject: Update on my Public Disclosure Act lawsuit against Ron Sims and King County,

To: those who have followed 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, weeks before the June 15, 1997 election on the football stadium, 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 happened this past week; what it means; what you can do.

Thanks to so many of you who emailed or phoned the past few days after noticing what had happened with my case. Many of you have been checking my blog for news/updates, or saw the news at www.SoundPolitics.com or other blogs, or saw one or both of the Times and P-I articles. Thanks again for your emails, your comments, your support. It means a lot.

The court ruled in my favor this past Wednesday, following the August 19 court hearing. The decision came sooner than expected. In fact, I was out of town for a few days and couldn't get on a computer to post to my blog, let alone mass email to you, until this weekend.

Despite the record amount awarded, the outcome sets a terrible precedent for anyone who would follow in the future with a PDA request and who gets stonewalled as I did. In fact, it's happening already to yours truly in two other cases I'm involved in - both associated with King County. The bad behavior continues, and, if anything, has grown worse and more arrogant.

To read the decision, the Times and P-I articles, and to get my analysis of what this means to the public (it's bad) and my reaction (I'm disgusted), please use the links below (or copy and paste the internet addresses into your browser's address field) to get to the specific postings on this case at my blog (which otherwise is: www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com ).

And please check back occasionally to my blog: www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com (add it to your "favorites"?). Besides updates on what will happen next (e.g. either side might appeal), there are other posts you might find of interest. For instance, I'll be "on-line" this Tuesday evening at a national web site - see the post about that as well if you are interested in participating or "watching" a national "on-line" Q & A with me, as a "PDA guest expert" at www.blackboxvoting.org . Otherwise, I am increasingly sending emails less frequently, and assuming anyone interested in this matter will check my blog when your time and inclination allow.

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/08/times-p-i-on-my-king-county-pda.html

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/08/record-decision-record-disappointment.html

Finally, I'll mention - again - that to this day, the mainstream press has done virtually nothing to expose the deception I believe I have more than ample evidence of: namely, that King County Executive Ron Sims deceived the voters with his public statements in the weeks prior to the June 15, 1997 election. I believe the voters were duped into voting for the public financing of the Paul Allen football stadium and the needless demolition of the Kingdome, resulting in economic losses to the region as events hosted in that facility went elsewhere. While they have given some coverage to the PDA lawsuit, they have done virtually nothing to show what was revealed in the documents I did obtain. In my opinion, they have let us down.

Having "gotten away" with lack of exposure of that deed, Sims has perpetrated a long list of economically unsound schemes since, and/or demonstrated his ineptitude, his contempt for democracy, his willingness to pursue "hidden agendas", etc. ad nauseum.

Please consider emailing the Seattle Times and P-I editors and the reporters involved and telling them you think the stadium story behind the PDA story should be exposed. Maybe they'll do something? Please cc me in on anything you do.

Here are the addresses to email to:

Seattle Times:

opinion@seattletimes.com (Letters to Editor)

mohagan@seattletimes.com (Maureen O'Hagan, reporter)

cclarridge@seattletimes.com (Christine Clarridge, reporter)

Seattle P-I:

kenbunting@seattlepi.com (Ken Bunting, Executive Editor)

davidmccumber@seattlepi.com (David McCumber, Managing Editor)

gregoryroberts@seattlepi.com (Gregory Roberts, reporter)

Armen Yousoufian
www.ArmenYousoufian.com
www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com