King Co. judge declines to block arsonist's records requests

A man who's serving 24 years for having the cars of two lawyers firebombed might be creeping out prosecutors by seeking information about them under the Public Records Act, but a judge has ruled he's entitled to keep asking.

King County Superior Court Judge Glenna Hall said she had no authority to bar the arsonist, Allan Parmelee, from making public disclosure requests. Parmelee has filed hundreds of such requests since his incarceration, seeking records on prosecutors, prison guards, state troopers, judges and others who helped put him behind bars.

Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, alarmed at the requests, took the extraordinary step of asking the judge not only to let his office ignore Parmelee's pending requests, but to bar him from filing any more unless he first obtained court permission _ an option the Public Records Act does not contemplate. Parmelee sought to harass his staff, Satterberg wrote, and giving him what he wanted could be dangerous.

Hall said that argument stretched the law.

"Here, the requester has been characterized as not only annoying or vocal, but violent," Hall wrote in an opinion published Monday. "Even so, the law requires the court to presume that access to the public records he seeks is in the public interest, and not make him show his purpose."

As for Parmelee's pending requests, Hall said some must be granted _ such as his requests for photographs of King County employees, including judges; lists of names, job titles and pay scales; work e-mails and office phone numbers, which are all public records. Other records he requested, such as personnel files, are exempt.

The prosecutor's office is considering whether to appeal, spokesman Dan Donohoe said Tuesday.

Parmelee was convicted in 2004 at his second trial of first-degree arson in the firebombing of one vehicle belonging to his ex-wife's divorce lawyer and another belonging to an attorney who represented his roommate's ex-girlfriend. His first trial ended in a mistrial because he was found to have personal information about the jurors.

Under Washington's Public Records Act, much personal information is exempt from disclosure. But if a record is public, agencies can't decide to release it to one person but not another. There is no limit on how many requests someone can file.

The state has won previous orders against disclosing specific information to Parmelee. A Thurston County Superior Court judge granted the Department of Corrections' request to withhold staff photographs, but that order _ along with two of Parmelee's cases from Clallam County _ are to be argued in the state Court of Appeals in May, said one of his lawyers, Michael Kahrs of Seattle.

In another case, though, Parmelee won more than $19,000 in fees from the Department of Corrections because it delayed providing him with certain records. Parmelee has not seen the money because the state has taken steps to have it directed toward his criminal fines.

Kahrs praised Hall's ruling.

"Judge Hall has tried to balance the interests of a public records requester with the intent of the law and the interests of the employees of the agency," he said. "She was just following the law."