Seattle Times report wins public-records award

From The Seattle Times:  Seattle Times criminal-justice reporter Mike Carter has received a Key Award from the Washington Coalition for Open Government for his perseverance in pursuing the public release of a May Day 2012 memo that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) initially claimed did not exist.

Carter, 58, said the award, presented Friday, came “right out of the blue.”

In May, the SPD admitted it violated the state Public Records Act by withholding from The Times an internal memorandum about the department’s response to the violent demonstrations of May Day 2012. The departmentagreed to pay $20,000 to the newspaper and its attorneys to avoid a lawsuit.

Washington Coalition for Open Government is a member of NFOIC.–eds.