The fight for transparency in the Clallam County Superior Court escalated this afternoon as I filed a formal Petition for Internal Review challenging the court’s aggressive refusal to release years of judicial search warrant logs.
📄 NO. 2026-12 Petition Internal Review (275KB ∙ PDF file)
On February 27, I submitted
Just days after the Port Angeles School District Board of Directors passed a highly controversial resolution censuring newly elected Director Nancy Hamilton, the district is attempting to build a four-and-a-half-month bureaucratic wall around the very documents they used to justify the reprimand.
On June 22, I
At The Olympic Herald, our independent investigative reporting is deeply rooted in regional accountability, advocating for First Amendment protections, and aggressively opposing prior restraints on the press and public.
On Thursday evening, the Port Angeles School District Board of Directors voted 4-1 to pass Resolution 2526-18, a measure
Earlier today, the Port Angeles School District released the first installment of records responsive to my June 22 Public Records Act request: the June 11 letter from Director Nancy Hamilton to the board and district counsel—the document at the center of last month’s censure fight.
Readers can download
Washington State courts are designed to act as the ultimate backstop against unconstitutional overreach. When overlapping networks of religious and secular authority attempt to crush dissent, the courtroom must remain an impenetrable sanctuary for objective truth.
On May 28, 2026, the constitutional guardrails held firm in Kitsap County as the
The First Amendment survived another coordinated attack in Washington State.
Yesterday afternoon, Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Houser definitively shot down Benjamin Mavy’s egregious second attempt to impose an unconstitutional prior restraint on The Olympic Herald.
Despite presenting himself as a victim, Mavy’s actions in court constituted a
In another victory for transparency and the First Amendment, visiting Kitsap County Judge Houser has delivered another blow to Benjamin Mavy’s attempt to orchestrate his censorship campaign in the shadows.
On May 14, 2026, Judge Houser granted The Olympic Herald’s request to bring a camera crew into the
The ink was barely dry on our latest victory for the First Amendment when the next attack arrived.
Just weeks after The Olympic Herald successfully defeated an egregious attempt to levy a coercive, publication-killing $2,000-per-day fine to silence our reporting, Benjamin Mavy—a former member of
In a major victory for press freedom and First Amendment rights, the Washington State Court of Appeals Division II has granted a motion to publish a pivotal decision regarding the constitutional limits of civil protection orders.
📄 D2 60325 Published Opinion (230KB ∙ PDF file)
As an investigative journalist for The Olympic
The United States Supreme Court has long held that public employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
In the landmark 1968 case Pickering v. Board of Education, the Court established that teachers have a constitutional right to speak out as private citizens on matters of
A Clallam County judge has overturned the Superior Court Administration’s categorical denial of an administrative records request, affirming the public’s right to government transparency regarding communications between Judge Brent Basden and his former subordinate, Johnny Watts.
In an order issued today, Judge Simon Barnhart ruled that the court
The Olympic Herald has formally petitioned the Washington State Court of Appeals to publish a portion of a recent ruling that struck down an unconstitutional gag order in a Thurston County domestic violence case.
Earlier today, I filed a non-party motion asking Division II of the appellate court to
In a resounding victory for the First Amendment and the free press in Washington state, a visiting judge from Kitsap County today formally denied a motion attempting to force the Olympic Herald to remove over thirty articles of investigative journalism.
The motion, filed by LDS Elder Benjamin Mavy, sought to
When a government institution faces intense public scrutiny, its fundamental constitutional obligation is to maintain transparency. Clallam County Superior Court, however, appears to have chosen a different path.
Presiding Judge Barnhart has failed to rein in former Presiding Judge Basden’s staff, who are actively freezing out critics in the
On April 16 at 1:30 PM, a visiting judge from Kitsap County will hear a motion that threatens the very core of a free and independent press in Washington state.
LDS Elder Benjamin Mavy, a former member of Judge Basden’s Port Angeles LDS Stake, is asking the court
The fight for transparency in the Clallam County Superior Court escalated on Thursday, April 2, as I filed a formal Request for Internal Review challenging the court’s aggressive refusal to release communications between Judge Brent Basden and a former employee now facing massive drug distribution charges.
On March 23,
A Washington State appellate court has ruled that a trial court’s order banning a man from mentioning his estranged family online “in any manner whatsoever” violates the First Amendment.
In an unpublished opinion filed today, March 31, 2026, Division Two of the Washington State Court of Appeals affirmed domestic
As the public demands answers regarding why an armed, alleged fentanyl and meth distributor was previously employed as the Clallam County Drug Court Coordinator, the Court Administration has decided on a strategy of absolute secrecy.
In a blatant refusal of transparency, the Clallam County Superior Court is aggressively withholding years
The motion asks the court to order the removal of certain articles and requests a coercive fine of up to $2,000 per day until the articles are removed.
The Clallam County Superior Court’s official Facebook page remains completely dark as of this morning, almost two weeks after it abruptly vanished from the internet.
Newly obtained internal emails reveal that the sudden disappearance followed a frantic, behind-the-scenes scramble by court officials to disable public commentary and
Yesterday afternoon, the Clallam County Superior Court appeared to delete its official Facebook page entirely. The abrupt removal of the court’s digital presence comes less than 48 hours after the Olympic Herald reported that the court had ceased unconstitutionally censoring public comments.
It appears that when the court lifted
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