Two Veteran Officers Responsible for Leaking Information to The Seattle Times

Employees at the Seattle Police Department have been phoning news stations and leaking information about significant cases for over a year, but it wasn’t until Wednesday morning that the department was able to reach to the bottom of the case and discover the illegal informants on the team. The Seattle Police Department says that they have spent more than a year combing the records of 120,000 department phone calls to solve a crime amongst the crime fighters. A police officer at the department had been leaking confidential cases to the news media in exchange for compensation. The Criminal Intelligence Section of the police force discovered two news media reporters who were listed as contacts in the Police Department phone records.

One contact was a Seattle Times reporter, the other was a news blogger who now works for the Police Department. The investigation findings were promptly sent to the police department’s Office of Personal Accountability, but the authorities there determined that there was not enough proof to incriminate police authorities. The department told The Seattle Times that they closed the investigation after discovering the evidence because the news leaks threatened to compromise the investigation into the killing of a police officer. Timothy Brenton was murdered in October of 2009 and the police force is still probing into the incident. Since the mystery began, the officers have pursued the killer but then ran into complications involving a search warrant. Workers didn’t want this information leaked to the public through illegal journalist informants.

Eventually, the police discovered that two veteran officers were responsible for leaking information to The Seattle Times The police say that they are not on a campaign to suppress any scrutiny in the news media, but at the same time they believe that the investigation was necessary. Police say that the leaks involved some very sensitive criminal investigative information from the Timothy Brenton case. The leaks of such information could compromise an investigation and hinder the court’s ability to obtain a conviction for the killer who murdered four police officers while on the loose.

The police say that they were disappointed in the officers who compromised information, because they believe that their suspect most likely read the articles that were published and used them to gain valuable information about how he can defend himself on trial. Many times in criminal cases, evidence and information is only useable if it is kept confidential. Thankfully, the Seattle Times writer who obtained information about the Brenton case was able to hold off on publishing that information until after the suspect was arrested.

In some cases, if you are a suspect and your situation has been leaked into the media, this may work to your advantage. You will want to talk to a Seattle criminal defense attorney about your situation and determine where the story was posted, by whom, and when. If you had the right to a confidential case and an informant allowed your situation to be published by the press, then this may give you an edge over the prosecution. A criminal defense attorney with more information about privacy laws in Washington upon arrest can help to enlighten you on this subject.

Classified Information Leaks

While classified information leaks can happen on a state level, they can also happen on a federal one. According to documents put out by the Senior Advisor at Open Society Foundations leaking classified information from government dealings to the press can be a federal offense. One document reads that the Obama Administration has already brought five criminal cases charging present and former government officials with violating the law and disclosing national security information to the press. The only time that a government employee is allowed to leak confidential information is when he or she is given permission under the Espionage Act. The President and others in authority have the right to punish any person that leaks information by revoking clearance or terminating that person from his or her position.

In some cases, this crime can be considered espionage. Typically, espionage is obtaining confidential or secret information without the permission of the holder of information. Typically, the information was supposed to be kept hidden, and is published or leaked in a way that is not helpful for the party who was wronged. Depending on the degree of espionage, penalties can be very serious. A criminal who is convicted of espionage can be sent to prison, deported if he or she is from a different country, or issued the death penalty in extreme cases.

Whether you have been accused of espionage, charged with leaking information to the press, or are a criminal who believes that your rights have been compromised because your case was leaked, you need a criminal defense attorney on your side. At Baker, Lewis, Schwisow & Laws, we understand that you may not deserve the punishments that you face if convicted of your crime. We want to help you to avoid the jail time, fines, and other repercussions of being convicted of a serious crime. Whether you are dealing with a felony or a misdemeanor, we are here to help. You can contact the attorneys at our Seattle criminal defense firm at any time in order to start your case. We offer free case evaluations to all of our clients, and are more than willing to use our 45 years of combined experience to potentially handle your case. Contact the firm for any information that you may need or with any questions you may have.