Franklin County judge bars inmate from getting more jail records

A Franklin County judge agreed this week that the Franklin County Sheriff's Office and jail don't have to give any more records to a convicted arsonist serving time in Aberdeen.

Judge Cameron Mitchell said there was no legitimate purpose behind the 39 public-records requests Allan W. Parmelee filed with the Sheriff's Office asking for jail employees' photos, training records, performance evaluations, complaints and work phone numbers, among other information.

Mitchell on Monday granted a permanent injunction, which stops Parmelee from requesting this information from either the Sheriff's Office or the jail.

But it wouldn't stop him from submitting public-records requests to other Franklin County departments, said Ryan Verhulp, the county's chief civil deputy prosecutor.

Parmelee, who has never been a Franklin County inmate, has blanketed agencies across the state with hundreds of public-records requests.

Parmelee is serving a 24-year sentence at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen for firebombing the cars of two lawyers who appeared against him in King County. He was convicted in 2004.

But his history of abusing the legal system stretches back to at least 2001, when the federal district court for Western Washington banned him from filing lawsuits without being represented by an attorney because he had filed 28 nuisance suits up to that date, according to court documents.

The Clallam County Superior Court twice in 2006 said that the Department of Corrections didn't have to provide records about employees to Parmelee because he sought to use the information to harass, slander or endanger the subjects and that his requests did not serve any public interest.