Video of oral argument at www.tvw.org

The February 26, 2008 oral argument video is now up at the website of our state cable public channel - TVW. Use the link below or go to http://www.tvw.org/ and look for Washington State Supreme Court cases in 2008, then find my case under the date of February 26, 2008. For awhile in the past 24 hours, it was the "featured video", displayed in the upper left area of the home page of tvw. If/when you go to the tvw website, if you see a Supreme Court case as the featured video, you should also see a scroll bar with various videos just below the Supreme Court main video window. If you scroll that horizontally, you may see my case and can just click on that to view it.

Otherwise, the link below should get you directly to the portion of tvw's website where you can click on the appropriate button to view the video. If you go to the podcast area, you can also download the audio.

http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2008020018B&TYPE=V&CFID=3301934&CFTOKEN=ada39fc170598fac-65FEE8CD-3048-349E-4E3537D3CE3A4877&bhcp=1

Article in Vashon Island's Beachcomber

This article appeared in today's weekly edition of the local paper for Vashon/Maury Islands - the Beachcomber (www.VashonBeachcomber.com ) :


Yousoufian’s case heads to high court

By Leslie Brown

Feb 20 2008

An eight-year battle between Armen Yousoufian and King County over the state’s Public Disclosure Act and the penalty he’s owed for the county’s failure to deliver up hundreds of pages of documents is headed to the state Supreme Court — for a second time.

The county appealed the case to the state’s highest court after a trial court said the county owed Yousoufian $123,780 for its failure to comply with the Public Disclosure Act, the largest penalty in the history of the state disclosure law. According to the county’s legal brief, the court-mandated penalty is out of line since Yousoufian has not experienced any economic harm due to the county’s delay in releasing documents and since the county did not intentionally withhold the information.

But Yousoufian’s lawyer, Rand Jack, in his legal brief, said economic harm should not be and never has been a factor in setting penalties under the disclosure act. The record-setting penalty is also in order, Jack argued, because of what he called the county’s “reckless disregard” for the law and its “intentional acts or omissions.”

The Supreme Court will hear the case at 9 a.m. next Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Seattle University’s law school.

The case has had many twists and turns since Yousoufian, a Seattle businessman who lives on Vashon, first asked the county in May 1997 for records about the public financing of what is now Qwest Field — 18 days before a referendum vote on the then-controversial stadium.

According to Yousoufian’s brief, the Seattle businessman did not receive the final documents he requested until after he filed a lawsuit against the county in March 2000, nearly four years after his initial request. The county said it produced many documents right away but failed to provide documents outlining studies on the financing of stadiums because officials believed at the time that no such documents existed; after Yousoufian filed suit, the county discovered that such documents did exist and released them.

In the case’s first trial, King County Superior Court found the county negligent “every step of the way” and imposed a fine of $5 a day, for a total of $25,450. Yousoufian, arguing that the fine was too low, appealed to the state Court of Appeals, which agreed with him and ordered the trial court to impose a bigger penalty. Yousoufian also appealed the case to the state Supreme Court in an effort to further clarify how that larger penalty should be set.

When the case went back to the trial court, it set the penalty at $15 a day and the total fine at $123,789; the trial court also said the county had to pay Yousoufian’s lawyers nearly $300,000. All told, the county has to pay $423,000 for its delay in producing all the documents Yousoufian sought.

Yousoufian did not want the case to go to the high court again but said in a brief interview that he expects to again prevail.

“We look forward to the opportunity to revisit the issues,” he said.

Carolyn Duncan, a spokesperson for County Executive Ron Sims, said the county’s pleased that the high court will review the case, saying that the penalty seems disproportionate to the county’s missteps with Yousoufian.

“We did our best to meet the request and inadvertently left out information that was covered by the request,” she said. “As soon as we realized that, we got the other documents to him.”

The case will be heard at Seattle University as part of the state Supreme Court’s effort to get out of Olympia and “on the road,” as the court’s Web site puts it. According to Yousoufian, the first time his case was heard by the high court, it also went on the road, that time to the University of Washington.

“It’s my understanding that the cases selected to be heard on these ‘on the road’ occasions ... are those of the most compelling public interest,” Yousoufian said in a posting on his blog. “So for my case to now be chosen two out of two times to be put in this category is another honor.”

How to access website

There have been problems accessing www.ArmenYousoufian.com the past few days. If you experience long delays getting www.ArmenYousoufian.com to load, try going to this URL: http://home.comcast.net/~ayousoufian/index.html

Supplemental briefs now posted at www.ArmenYousoufian.com

This post is a second supplement to the January 18, 2008 post (two posts below) re: how my case is now to be heard - for a second time - by the Washington State Supreme Court, on February 26, 2008 (morning session).

For those who wish to learn more about the legal issues and arguments now before the Washington State Supreme Court (for the second time that the Supreme Court is hearing this case), we have just posted the "Supplemental Briefs" filed by each side on February 7 and 8, 2008.

To access the two sides' supplemental briefs, simply go to http://www.ArmenYousoufian.com , read the top paragraph about the upcoming February 26, 2008 oral argument, and click on the appropriate links to take you to the bottom of that webpage, where you can download the supplemental briefs. For those planning to attend the February 26, 2008 oral argument, or watch it on www.tvw.org later, I especially recommend you read the briefs - they don't take long to read, they are readily understandable to a non-lawyer, and will help immeasuably in your following what happens at oral argument.

There may be more briefs posted as they become available - within the next few days to two weeks, as we get closer to oral argument. These may include "Amicus" briefs, so please check back to this blog occasionally for updates.

Supreme Court Petition for Review Briefs now posted at www.ArmenYousoufian.com

This post is a supplement to the January 18, 2008 post below re: how my case is now to be heard - for a second time - by the Washington State Supreme Court, on February 26, 2008 (morning session).

For those who wish to learn more about the legal issues and arguments now before the Washington State Supreme Court (for the second time that the Supreme Court is hearing this case), you can read King County's April 18, 2007 Petition for Review, our May 18, 2007 Reply, and King County's May 31, 2007 Response. Simply go to http://www.ArmenYousoufian.com/ , read the top paragraph about the upcoming February 26, 2008 oral argument, and click on the appropriate links to take you to the bottom of that webpage, where you can download the various legal briefs.



For those planning to attend the February 26, 2008 oral argument, I especially recommend you read the briefs - they don't take long to read, they are readily understandable to a non-lawyer, and will help immeasuably in your following what happens at oral argument.



There will be more "supplemental" briefs posted as they become available - within the next few days to two weeks, as we get closer to oral argument. These may include "Amicus" briefs, so please check back to this blog occasionally for updates.

Upcoming Courtroom Round #6: State Supreme Court to hear Yousoufian vs. Ron Sims/King County (again) - February 26

Announcement: Upcoming (February 26, 2008) Courtroom Round #6 of my nearly 11 year old Public Disclosure Act request for sports stadium documents and the ensuing litigation to force the documents out of King County Executive Ron Sims' office.

Subject: On February 26, 2008, at Seattle University, the state's highest court will (again) hear my case, as a result of King County's appeal of the February 5, 2007 ruling in my favor at the Court of Appeals

As previously reported (see links below to selected earlier posts), the state Court of Appeals, Division I, ruled favorably on my case on February 5, 2007. Subsequently, King County appealed that ruling to the state's highest court, which had previously heard my case in 2004 (at which time I was the appellant).

Early this month, the state's highest court granted King County's Petition for Review to hear this case - again.

Oral argument will be Tuesday morning, February 26, 2008, in Seattle, at Seattle University, at their School of Law. This is open to the public and I welcome folks to attend and watch the proceedings.

The court session is scheduled to start at 9 AM. The exact location is the Fred Dore H. Courtroom in the School of Law building at Seattle University, on its main campus on Capitol Hill, in Seattle (between Broadway on west side and 12th Avenue on east side, and between East Madison Street on north side and East Cherry Street on south side). See: http://www.seattleu.edu/home/campus_community/visit_campus/directions_area_maps/driving_to_main_campus/ There's a large parking garage (reasonable parking rates) at the SW corner of the campus, accessed off Broadway, just north of James Street. The Law School is on the east side of the campus, off 12th Avenue.


By the way, on top of this case already being so unusual in having already been heard by appellate courts three times (twice by the Court of Appeals, Division I and once before by the Washington State Supreme Court), and now heading for the state Supreme Court for a second time, it's going to be heard "on the road" at Seattle University. This will be two out of two times it'll be heard before a larger audience, outside the normal (small audience holding) courtroom in Olympia (in 2004, my case was one of three heard "on the road" at the University of Washington's Law School). It's my understanding that the cases selected to be heard on these "on the road" occasions (that's the Supreme Court's description, at their website, not mine) are those of the most compelling public interest. So for my case to now be chosen two out of two times to be put in this category is another honor. And it certainly will be increasing its exposure, as the courtroom at Seattle U holds a lot more people than the one in Olympia, and is obviously more convenient to get to for folks in the Seattle metro area.


I encourage folks to get there early, as it'll be first come first served, and I can only imagine Seattle U students will occupy many seats. Also, from past experience (my own case, the Millers' case at Tacoma Community College, etc.) the Chief Justice makes a number of interesting preliminary remarks at the start of each half day session. My case is scheduled as the second case of the morning session on February 26, with the first case being scheduled for 20 minutes per side of oral argument. But that order and timing could change, and I've seen it happen when a lawyer for a given case called the court to say he'd missed a ferry and would be arriving past his scheduled start time, and a later case was moved up on the spot! So I'd encourage anyone planning to attend this to arrive before 9 AM and allow for a couple of hours.


As many of you might already know, the Supreme Court issues its rulings in cases it hears some 6 to 12 months (occasionally longer) after the "oral argument" takes place. (e.g. In 2004, my case was heard in mid-January, and the ruling was released in September.)


Below, for background, are selected links from this blog's archives re: what happened last February:


http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/seattle-times-latest-article-on-court.html


http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/seattle-post-intelligencer-article-on.html


http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/associated-press-coverage-of-latest.html


http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/link-to-podcast-of-full-hour-on-dori.html

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/court-of-appeals-rules-favorably.html

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/feb-5-2007-seattle-weekly-post-on.html

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/02/feb-12-2007-olympia-editorial.html

Below, fyi, is some material out of the state Supreme Court's letter to the lawyers involved in my case:

Re:
Supreme Court No. 80081 -2 - Armen Yousoufian v. The Office of Ron Sims, et al.
Clerk and Counsel:

The above case has been set for oral argument on February 26,2008, as the 2nd case.
Oral argument will be held at Seattle University in the Fred H. Dore courtroom. Cases 1 and 2 will be heard in the morning session, with Court convening at 9:00 a.m.

Oral argument will be twenty minutes per side. If a party wishes to request thirty minutes
per side for oral argument, the request must be submitted in writing. The Court strongly
encourages that, whenever possible, oral argument should be presented by only one-or at most
two-counsel per side.

Opinions are usually released at 8:00 a.m. on Thursdays. On Wednesdays, a notice will
be on the court's homepage, http://www.courts.wa.gov/home.cfm, of those opinions that may
be released the next morning. E-mail notification of opinion releases is also available by
signing up at the court's web site. Once the opinion in this case is released, counsel for both
parties will be notified by e-mail and a scanned copy of the opinion will be sent as an attachment
to e-mail the same day. For this reason, all counsel should provide this office with a current, up-
to-date, e-mail address. Hard copies of the opinion will no longer be mailed, unless counsel does
not have a viable e-mail address. The opinion is also available on the court's homepage
(http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/recent.cfm)

I'm on "You Tube" again ! Part II now posted of most detailed explanation yet of what documents reveal

Per two posts back (http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2007/05/im-on-you-tube-most-detailed.html), Mike McCormick has now posted Part II of the two, nearly one hour each, public access cable tv broadcasts of his October, 2003 interviews of me - all still relevant.

Both Parts I and II are available by going to Mike McCormick's website, www.talkingsticktv.org, clicking on my picture, and then clicking on Part I or II.

Part I was originally broadcast on Channel 77, the Seattle area public access cable tv channel, on April 18, 2007.

Part II was broadcast a week later, on April 25, 2007.