Number	25271
Subject	Police
Source	KIRO-TV (Seattle)
State	Washington
Year	2011
Publication Date	August 3, 4, 5, 9, 15, and September 21, 2011
Summary	The investigation exposes a police chief's desperate attempt to acquire the name of an anonymous cartoonist, mocking his department on the Internet. A person going by the moniker MrFiddlesticks (and other names) was airing internal affairs dirty laundry in the form of parody. To find out who, the city prosecutor, police chief and a local judge teamed up to craft a criminal search warrant. KIRO-TV's investigative unit not only uncovered questionable legal tactics (like prosecutor shopping), but later caught police shredding hundreds of records related the case. First Amendment and FOIA issues are central to this ongoing investigation.
Category	Contest Entry
Pages	35
Keywords	cartoonist; search warrant; shredding
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