Court: texts on public employee's phone are public records.
Position | FOI |
The Washington Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a public employee's work-related text messages sent and received on a private cellphone are public records.
The case was filed by Pierce County Sheriff s Detective Glenda Nissen, who claimed that Prosecutor Mark Lindquist banned her from his office after she criticized him and supported his opponent. Nissen had requested Lindquist's call and text records, including texts he made and received on his private cellphone.
In response, Lindquist provided a "call log" and "text message log," which included the dates and times of calls and messages as well as phone numbers, but not the content of the messages. Lindquist acknowledged that some of the calls and texts were work-related.
The county gave partially redacted copies to Nissen, but she sued the county, arguing that the records relating to his work should be made public. The trial judge sided with the county, saying private cellphone records are not public records.
The Supreme Court, however, disagreed and ordered Lindquist to produce those records to the county.
Nissen argued that Lindquist sent and received text messages in his official capacity "to take actions retaliating against her and other official misconduct." The court said that since the county and Lindquist acknowledged that some of his texts were work-related, transcripts of those messages are potentially public records.
Therefore, the court ordered Lindquist to get a transcript of his text messages and turn over to the county any that are public records so they could be sent to Nissen.
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