Evidently if you are a public official with something to hide all you have to do is run to a Judge and he/she may give you an anti-harrassment order against a private citizen or even a journalist.
Problem is that pesky little thing called the 1st Amendment, oh and our right to public participation.This is the most blatant SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) that I have ever seen.
Duvall Police Officer Lori Batiot was the focus of a public records request, one that could be severely damaging to her. So she immediately went down and filed an anti-harrassment order against the record requester.
This Officer has a very troubling past to say the least and from a DUI up in Bellingham in 2001 to multiple court proceedings while she was a city of Brier Officer, we are still waiting for word as to why she was hired as a Brier Officer with a DUI pending that wasn’t resolved until 2006 long after her employment with Brier.
The current Police Chief we spoke to earlier was very helpful but had no idea as to why this occurred, he wasn’t with the Dept at the time she was.
It could be that she was using the last name Harris, but it is the same person. She also uses the last name of Hoffer. Public records show this as well so it is no big secret or mystery.
On May 4th in courtroom #2 of the Shoreline District Court @2 pm, Judge Eileen Kato signed an anti-harrassment order against an investigative Journalist.
We are going to retrieve the court recordings as soon as possible to see what the breakdown in Law 101 was.
Judge Kato is well aware of the 1st Amendment, she is fully aware of Civil Rights so there is no clear answer as to why she made herself a party to this. She has been in trouble with the Judicial Commission concerning signing witnesses to a fact that were not present at the time. Basically a crime of dishonesty.
I did call and talk to the clerk Mr J. Lee at the Shoreline division, and he told me that the Judge couldn’t comment on any case that was active but he did advise us to get a taped copy of the proceedings. We will upload them as soon as we get them.
It’s very important for people to understand that once you have filed anything in a court it becomes public record. The public then has the right to request any of those records in most cases except for Juvenile and adoption records.
There is also the question of why Ms Batiot went to the Shoreline Division of the District Court instead of her home base of Redmond District Court.
Then the question becomes did she do this on county time? If so she has just drug the City of Duvall into her quagmire. She is a public servant who made herself as such once she went on news and in front of cameras, and the day that she put on that badge. She can not stop public participation, she can try but this is going to cost her atleast 10,000.00 to start with along with attorney fees.
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