King County prosecutor has asked sheriff to investigate Durkan’s, other Seattle leaders’ deleted texts

By Daniel Beekman

Seattle Times staff reporter

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has asked Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall to put together an investigation into the deletion of text messages from the phones of then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and other city leaders in 2020.

“It wasn’t clear to me that anyone was going to start this investigation without prompting,” Satterberg said Thursday in an emailed statement. “Just like the public’s right to an open courtroom, people have a right to know what is in public documents — including text messages.”

Satterberg’s office requested the investigation July 28, spokesperson Casey McNerthney said.

“We are in the early stages of reviewing the matter,” said Cole-Tindall spokesperson Cynthia Sampson, giving no other information.

Last year, a whistleblower in Durkan’s office revealed that the mayor’s texts from a 10-month period — including tumultuous weeks in early summer 2020 when police deployed tear gas against Black Lives Matter protest crowds and vacated the East Precinct — were missing.

The Seattle Times subsequently discovered that a number of other leaders had failed to retain their texts from approximately the same period, including fire Chief Harold Scoggins and the police chief at the time, Carmen Best.

Anyone who willfully destroys a public record that’s supposed to be kept is guilty of a felony under state law. Most elected and public officials in Washington, including mayors, are required to take training that include information about retaining records.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-county-prosecutor-has-asked-sheriff-to-investigate-seattle-leaders-deleted-texts/