Legal Bills Mounting in Court Battle Over Prosecutor’s Texts

TACOMA  (AP) — Legal bills now total more than half a million dollars in a long-running court case over whether Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist must release text messages under Washington state's public records law.

Lindquist has been involved in a long-running public records fight with a former sheriff's detective. The state Supreme court has ordered him to disclose any messages on his personal phone that were work-related, but Lindquist has maintained the messages are private communications made outside of the scope of his employment.

The News Tribune in Tacoma reports that according to the latest figures from the county's risk management division, the public bill for the long-running legal tussle is now more than $584,000.