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The Washington State Patrol (WSP) agreed to pay $340,000 to settle claims it deleted or withheld public records tied to the firing of troopers who refused the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to The Seattle Times.
The settlement adds to growing scrutiny over how Washington agencies handled — and in some cases deleted — electronic records during and after the pandemic.
The dispute traces back to public records requests submitted to the WSP between August 2022 and April 2024 by multiple named and anonymous individuals seeking communications connected to then-Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 mandate and related employee terminations, according to court documents.
In May 2024, the self-described WSP Transparency Task Force, a group of former WSP troopers and detectives, accused the WSP of deleting text messages, emails and other records connected to the firing of employees who didn’t comply with the mandate.
At the center of the dispute was an internal message from Patrol Chief John Batiste instructing employees to keep work-related texts and chat messages “transitory” and delete them “after they have served their intended purpose.”
The plaintiffs argued the policy encouraged employees to delete messages, even after the agency was legally required to preserve them for lawsuits or investigations.
Under Washington law, emails, texts, chat messages and other electronic communications related to government business qualify as public records. Knowingly destroying or concealing such records can constitute a class C felony.
Court dismissed public records lawsuit over anonymous plaintiffs
According to Chris Loftis, the WSP’s director of public affairs, the complaints involved nearly 100 public records requests and raised questions about the agency’s ability to “forensically capture, then produce, transitory and non-transitory text messages from its employees.”
In January 2025, Thurston County Superior Court in Washington dismissed the lawsuit after determining the WSP Transparency Task Force failed to establish that it had the legal capacity to sue, The Seattle Times reported.
Loftis said the plaintiffs had attempted to proceed under “the name of an anonymous and unknown association.”
The group appealed the dismissal in May 2025.
According to a September 2025 amended appellate brief, the WSP Transparency Task Force described itself as “an association of former Washington State Patrol troopers and detectives committed to agency accountability and transparency.”
However, the filing didn’t identify how many members belonged to the organization, how they were connected to it, or provide proof of any formal legal status. The brief again referenced unnamed members who sought anonymity “to avoid prejudice.”
Once the case was dismissed, members of the group appealed using their real names, according to The Seattle Times.
The Court of Appeals of the State of Washington, Division II, ended appellate review on April 27, 2026, after the parties reached a settlement.
Plaintiffs agreed to withdraw pending records requests
Under the settlement, plaintiffs agreed to withdraw pending records requests related to the vaccine mandate and not pursue future litigation over previously requested mandate records.
The agreement also included $4,000 in attorney fees and mediation costs.
The records fight grew out of Washington’s 2021 vaccine mandate, which required most state employees, healthcare workers and school staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 2021 or lose their jobs.
More than 90 people sued Inslee in September 2021, including 53 WSP employees along with corrections workers, firefighters and ferry employees. Within weeks, that number grew to roughly 600 public employees, including the state fire marshal.
That broader lawsuit remains ongoing, according to The Seattle Times.
Loftis said 132 WSP employees lost their jobs over the mandate, including 70 troopers, eight sergeants and one captain.
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Washington suspended auto-delete policy amid records disputes
The settlement is the latest in a series of disputes over deleted electronic communications within the Washington state government.
In 2021, Washington Technology Solutions, or WaTech, implemented a statewide policy automatically deleting Microsoft Teams messages after seven days.
The policy gained attention in 2023, when news reports revealed that agencies within the governor’s office had adopted the practice.
State officials maintained employees were responsible for preserving “non-transitory communications,” but critics questioned how records staff could determine whether deleted messages contained meaningful public business.
In 2024, open-government advocate Jamie Nixon sued the state over allegations that officials improperly deleted messages connected to a McClatchy reporter’s public records request. In February, the Washington Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of that case.
In early 2025, Gov. Bob Ferguson suspended the automatic-deletion policy following a separate $225,000 settlement that year involving the Department of Children, Youth and Families over destroyed government records.
Related articles in The Defender
- Former College Football Coach Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Files $25 Million Claim Against Washington State
- ‘Wave of Litigation’ Over COVID Vaccine Mandates — Nike, Washington State University Latest to Face Lawsuits
- St. Louis Schools Ordered to Pay $90,000 Each to Two Employees in COVID Vaccine Mandate Suit
- Woman Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Wins Big in Tennessee, but Supreme Court Deals Blow to Health Freedom Advocates in Connecticut
