King County Dep't of Adult v. Parmelee

• Decision Date: 27 June 2011
• Docket Number: No. 62937–9–I.,62937–9–I.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: KING COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ADULT AND JUVENILE DETENTION, Respondent,v.Allan PARMELEE, Appellant.

162 Wash.App. 337
254 P.3d 927

KING COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ADULT AND JUVENILE DETENTION, Respondent,
v.
Allan PARMELEE, Appellant.

No. 62937–9–I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

June 27, 2011.

[254 P.3d 929]

Allan Parmelee, Walla Walla, WA, Appearing Pro Se.Nancy Anne Balin, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

PUBLISHED IN PART COX, J.

[162 Wash.App. 341] ¶ 1 Allan Parmelee appeals from two successive permanent injunctions. They enjoin a governmental agency from allowing him to inspect and copy public records that he sought under the Public Records Act (PRA), chapter 42.56 RCW. We hold that the trial court properly enjoined access to nonexempt public records pursuant to RCW 42.56.565 in the second injunction. Because the relief that Parmelee requests with respect to the first injunction is unavailable due to the issuance of the second injunction, we decline to address his challenges to the first injunction. Parmelee also challenges other orders of the trial court. These challenges are not meritorious. We affirm.¹

[162 Wash.App. 342] ¶ 2 Parmelee has a long history of harassing and threatening government employees with personal information obtained through various avenues, including the PRA.²

[254 P.3d 930]

His tactics include publishing private information on public web sites, issuing “press releases” and other media about alleged improprieties by government employees, and filing administrative grievances and lawsuits.

¶ 3 Parmelee has been involved in several PRA cases involving Washington State agencies. For example, Parmelee submitted 223 separate PRA requests to the Department of Corrections (DOC) between 2001 and 2007. These requests primarily sought personal information about specific DOC employees or information about all DOC employees at a specific location. Based on Parmelee's stated intent to use this information to intimidate, harass, slander, and harm DOC employees, a number of superior courts have issued permanent injunctions prohibiting him from obtaining the requested information. ³ On review, some of these injunctions were vacated and the cases remanded for further consideration. But the factual background of these cases provides context for our analysis.

¶ 4 Division Two of this court recently described some of this context in DeLong v. Parmelee: ⁴

In 2004, a jury found Parmelee guilty of two counts of first degree arson for the fire-bombing of two automobiles belonging to attorneys opposing him in two separate civil legal actions. Parmelee fire-bombed the automobiles at the attorneys' respective residences. Prior to the first attack, Parmelee posted the attorneys' home addresses on a web site he created to complain about court rulings in his custody and dissolution dispute with [162 Wash.App. 343] the victim's client, Parmelee's former wife. On that web site, Parmelee “invited” other disgruntled fathers to pay the attorney victim “a visit.”

In addition, Parmelee's first criminal trial on the arson charges resulted in a mistrial because the superior court discovered that Parmelee possessed materials with discrete personal information about the jurors who had been impaneled. The trial court found that Parmelee had secreted this information in direct violation of a superior court order that he not retain any information on jurors. After the jury found him guilty, Parmelee expressed extreme hostility toward the judge and subsequently sought the judge's photograph from the Washington State Bar Association.

Parmelee has written several letters to DOC staff stating that he intends to misuse information that he receives about DOC staff. He has also made comments that DOC staff have interpreted as thinly veiled threats against them and their families.

On July 20, 2005, Parmelee wrote a letter to DOC Secretary Harold Clarke in which he referred to former Clallam Bay Correctional Center (CBCC) Superintendent Sandra Carter as an “anti-male ... lesbian,” and Associate Superintendent John Aldana as an “antagonist.” Parmelee went on to state that “[h]aving a man-hater lesbian as a superintendent is like throwing gas on already smouldering [sic] fire.” Parmelee asked Clarke for his “thoughts on this so [Parmelee could] conclude a series of media releases [he had] planned about CBCC.”

On October 8, 2005, Parmelee wrote a letter to Carter, which stated,

I have initiated investigators to possibly interview your neighbors, photograph your home and conduct a detailed due diligence into any actual or potential parties or witnesses to lawsuits. Some of the information will be interpreted and posted on the internet to make it easier for others to sue you people also, and to let the public know what type of people their taxes pay.... I already have some of your home addresses (for a dollar each) and now await the video and photographs. You [162 Wash.App. 344] want to conduct yourselves like official crooks, [sic] you

[254 P.3d 931]

deserve the publicity that comes with it. This letter is not intended to threaten, intimidate or coerce anyone. It is intended to simply put you on notice so you won't jump to the wrong conclusion when you see a photographer or video camera operator around yours [sic] or your staff's homes.

On March 19, 2006, CBCC staff confiscated a letter from Parmelee's cell addressed to Maxwell Tomlinson of Max Investigations. In that letter, Parmelee referred to past and future plans to send people on his behalf to CBCC staff members' homes or to follow them, indicating, “I'll have to call through another as we've done before. As usual bill me through the usual source, up to $2,000.00 per lot that I will pre-approve.” Parmelee went on to state that “[s]everal prison staff are defendants in lawsuits and I want them followed and photographed, and all the public records you can find, including SS's, DC's, and vehicle licenses, codes and pictures of them, their homes, and vehicles.” Parmelee identified 20 DOC employees he wanted Tomlinson to follow. He then went on to state,

I also propose that when we get ready to move forward, that your material not only be posted on the internet for other prisoners to access, but to hire some legal talent to enforce security and to prevent these inbred bullies from causing too much more trouble. Be careful, as we're dealing with people whose thought processes are defective and base. You may need a few bullies of your own. CR–4 service will be required.

On July 9, 2006, Parmelee wrote another letter to Carter informing her that he had hired picketers to picket the homes of DOC employees. He stated that he had hired individuals for

$2,000.00 per weekend to picket peacefully [outside] some DOC staff's residences and hand out information brochures about DOC employees to the neighbors.... These pickets are planned for Olympia DOC people whom [sic] may be in the dark about what's going on here and how bad things really are. They are also planned to occur at your CBCC staff's residences, which one(s) and when will not be revealed until a day or so in advance to the media.

[162 Wash.App. 345] On July 11, 2006, Parmelee received a serious infraction at CBCC when he handed a DOC employee a mock-up of a flyer containing the names of several DOC staff members. Parmelee told the employee, “These are the flyers that I am having printed and passed out tomorrow and if you don't stay out of it your dead bitch will be on one of them.”

The flyer Parmelee gave the correctional officer is entitled “SEXUAL PREDITORS [sic] IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD” and lists the names of six DOC employees. Above each DOC employee's name is a rough outline of a picture of that individual with “insert actual photos here as designated” written across one of the sketches. The flyer states in relevant part,

These sexual preditors [sic] ... work at the Clallam Bay prison where homosexual assaults are encouraged against prisoners by Sandra Carter, the gay feminist superintendent. Protect Your Families and Children. Demand The [DOC] Fire These People Now Before You Become Their Next Victim.[ ⁵]

¶ 5 Here, Parmelee exhibited similar behavior to that described in DeLong toward employees of the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD). In 2001, Parmelee was found in possession of a self-drawn diagram of the King County jail with notations indicating which areas to bomb. Twice in 2004, DAJD employees found a razor blade mixed in with Parmelee's legal papers when they were cleaning his cell. Parmelee has also physically assaulted DAJD employees on at least 13 occasions.

¶ 6 Parmelee also has a history of threatening DAJD employees. In 2001, Parmelee

[254 P.3d 932]

wrote a letter to the Corrections Program Administrator (CPA) stating, “I realize you enjoy threatening me because it happens so often. Don't worry, the score will be evened one day.... Till Death. AP.” ⁶

[162 Wash.App. 346] ¶ 7 While incarcerated at King County jail, Parmelee filed numerous grievances about DAJD employees. These grievances included the following express and implied threats. “Fire this idiot because it's people like him that get beat up when their backup isn't present.” ⁷ “Fire these stupid idiots before this harassment escalates into violence and someone gets hurt.... Pay me money.” ⁸ “Fire these stupid idiots ... pay me money. This is how guards get beat up.” ⁹ “He ... wants someone to hunt him down and beat his ass ... cease this conduct or I'll resolve this using other means.” ¹⁰ “Perhaps what she wants is for me to send these to her home. Is that what you're pushing for?” ¹¹

¶ 8 In a grievance response letter Parmelee wrote,

I admit telling Porter that I would put pictures of his [and other jail employees] residences, cars, themselves, and a wide variety of other personal information, all publicly available on the internet.... I am aware that past persons on this web site have had problems.... Although it is common knowledge, public information may “fuck up someone's life,”...