On September 14, 2021, Gabe Galanda and Ryan Dreveskracht filed a Washington State Supreme Court amicus brief for the National Police Accountability Project, urging the identification of the six Seattle Police Department officers who perpetuated the Big Lie and attended the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The officers seek to block the City of Seattle from releasing their identities through a public records request. According to a passage from the amicus brief:
Disclosure in this context benefits both the Government and members of the public because it provides vital protection for the integrity of the criminal legal process. Transparency about officers willing to violate Department policies or run roughshod over constitutional norms and rights protects the integrity of court proceedings in all criminal cases involving those officers. These protections take several forms. First, transparency about such officers can signal to defendants and their attorneys when to look especially hard at improperly-gotten evidence and, if necessary, argue for suppression during pretrial proceedings. Second, absent any indication that King County would decline to call one of the Doe officers to testify in court ever again, their identities would signal to criminal defense attorneys that these officers should be cross-examined in particular ways when testifying at trial. And finally, disclosure of the Doe officers’ identities and associated details could help habeas attorneys identify wrongful convictions after the fact. Each of these functions of transparency provides vital protection to the integrity of the criminal process. Such accountability is especially needed given the pervasive racial bias and disproportionality that exists in Washington State’s criminal “justice” system.
The case is Jane & John Does 1-6 v. Seattle Police Department et al.
Gabe Galanda and Ryan Dreveskracht are partners at Galanda Broadman, PLLC. They sue local and state governments, officials, and officers for the wrongful death of Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons. Gabe belongs to the Round Valley Indian Confederation, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Peoples.
