PORT TOWNSEND — Joe D’Amico, owner of Security Services Northwest Inc., has filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County Sheriff David Stanko alleging a public records violation.
D’Amico’s attorney, Greg Overstreet, filed the complaint — which includes a subpoena and a deposition request for Stanko’s phones and bills — Friday in Clallam County Superior Court alleging violations of the Public Records Act by Stanko, saying he withheld cellphone records for two phones allegedly used for county business.
This is the fourth public records lawsuit that D’Amico, a Sequim resident, has filed against Jefferson County this year.
Stanko had been summoned to appear in Clallam County Superior Court on this coming Tuesday for the deposition, but Philip Hunsucker, Jefferson County chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney, said that an extension had been filed.
He said the county does not comment on ongoing litigation.
On Oct. 29, 2017, D’Amico submitted a public records request asking for a year’s worth of Stanko’s cellphone records relating to county business.
The complaint filed Friday says that, “the Sheriff had contact with an SSNW employee in which the Sheriff appeared to be facilitating the hiring of that SSNW employee to provide private security for D’Amico’s landlord, Reed Gunstone Sr. to ‘protect’ Gunstone from D’Amico.”
Gunstone leased land to D’Amico for Fort Discovery on Discovery Bay. D’Amico now is seeking to build a site near Tarboo Ridge.
“Stanko has said his deputies cannot do outside work for me or anyone else, but here he is, circumventing my chain of command and suggesting one of my employees go to work for one of my customers,” D’Amico said.
He asked for “all records for the past year from the devices that you used to communicate with any SSNW employee two nights ago (10/27/17), including but not limited to text messages, email, phone calls, SMS messages, face time, schedules, other communications apps, contacts, phone number, and notes and billing invoices for such device. I am also requesting any other communications from any device to any other security prospects that you tendered on behalf of (Gunstone Attorney) (Larry) Setchell and or the Gunstones along with the same information.”
The complaint says that D’Amico discovered the existence of a second phone when SSNW employee Ken Przygocki — who was an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff in 2014 and is a former State Patrol officer — forwarded a screen shot of an Oct. 13 text message from Stanko to Przygocki providing Setchell’s phone number and email address. That text was not included in the records provided by Stanko, the complaint says.
In response to the public records request, on Nov. 17 and Dec. 5, 2017, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office provided a list of 253 items on Stanko’s cellphone. Information, such as recipients, phone numbers and the content of the messages, had been redacted. There was no record of the Oct. 13 text message sent from the phone, which showed a gap in texts from Oct 9-19, 2017.
According to Washington state open records laws, certain government information is exempt from public records release. The responding agency must cite specific reasons for the redactions.
Overstreet said Stanko did not cite any exemptions which he views as, “an apparent violation of state law.” He said this type of violation carries a possible fine of $100 per day per withheld record.
“We have a good experience when the Jefferson County public records administrator handles records requests,” D’Amico said. “We seem to have issues with requests handled by the sheriff’s department.”
The county has settled two of D’Amico’s complaints and a third is currently in litigation. That case involves an allegation of violation of the Public Records Act regarding the Sheriff’s Office’s internal investigation into the death of Thomas G. “Tommy” Lorecki who hanged himself Sept. 16, 2016, while an inmate at the Jefferson County Jail.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
