A King County judge has said that Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank appears to have altered text messages he was asked to hand over to a public records officer in an effort to remove messages that could be perceived as offensive.
Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan wrote in a court order dated Oct. 22 that altering a public record “could be problematic” and referred to a state law that states willfully or unlawfully altering such records is a felony. Court documents don’t say what could have been offensive about the allegedly doctored text messages.
In a phone call Friday afternoon, Swank told The News Tribune he had not seen Ryan’s court order but that he had turned over all of his communications to a public records officer…