Editor’s Note: The story has been corrected to reflect the corrected settlement offer from WWU according to Erasmus Baxter and Bill Crittenden.

BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The battle over Western Washington University’s sexual assault records has reached a sort of closure. 

The state college is required to pay nearly $112,000 to the former students that it wrongfully withheld information from. The case now sets a precedent for the rest of the state for how public records will be handled when public safety comes into play. 

On May 1, 2019, two Western Washington University (WWU) student journalists and an alumna sued the university for redacting the names of people found responsible for sexual misconduct and violence in school investigation records. One of the former students, Erasmus Baxter, said this was six months after the university fulfilled one of their many requests to have those records. 

Then on May 2, 2024, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge David Freeman penalized WWU $111,780 for their violation of the Public Records Act by withholding the names. 

In his ruling, Judge Freeman said the number was representative of each case. $15 for each of the 27 names per day that the names were not released. To be exact, 276 days passed in that time. Freeman did not see bad faith on the part of the university and didn’t add extra penalties for that reason. 

“This was not a frivolous request by any means,” Judge Freeman said in his ruling. “You have student journalists that are trying to do their job in covering a very important issue that is very relevant to the safety of these individuals.” 

“It goes to the heart of free press and the importance of journalism on very important topics,” Freeman added. 

Though the university did release the names eventually, it was only after the students sued. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Bill Crittenden, said that this is a way for the university to save face: making it look like the names’ release was only at the behest of the litigation. 

Shortly after the case began, Crittenden doubled down in efforts to “make WWU pay for what they had done.” He said in early court proceedings WWU brought a risk manager to court, which Crittenden said is unheard of. 

“It was like they were trying to mitigate the damages,” Crittenden said in an interview with My Bellingham Now. 

Baxter and Crittenden both said that they were offered a settlement from WWU, but Crittenden clarified that the settlement was initially less than $2,000, which he said would only cover attorney fees. WWU’s final settlement offer was higher than that, but nowhere near the penalty decision. At that point, Crittenden said he was honor-bound to reject the “insulting” offer and keep fighting for a better deal. 

“They were behaving like bureaucratic nitwits,” Crittenden said. He wants the school to know that “you were nailed for not dealing with this for what it was.” He adds that they would have settled if the offer was more reasonable. 

Crittenden added that WWU’s original response to the lawsuit made it out to be “not a big deal.” Court documents from WWU’s response in June 2019 said that the plaintiffs did not effectively make a claim for the suit and moved for it to be dismissed. 

Baxter did say that there were grounds for the litigation, as the names were not withheld on legal grounds. 

“Congress specifically exempted this information about students found responsible for sexual misconduct or violent offenses because they saw it as a safety issue,” Baxter said. 

WWU’s The Front reported seven of the people in the documents moved for their names to be withheld using an injunction. Those names were not released with the others to Baxter, Furukawa and Fields in 2020. Court documents from a December 2021 appeals decision said the anonymous students failed to show proof as to why their names should be withheld. Those remaining names were then released to the students three years after the initial request. 

Crittenden said this case is representative of everything that is wrong with how this state handles public records. 

Judge Freeman said he does not think the cost of the penalties is high enough to deter future issues in this area. The state Supreme Court Appeals ruling from December 2021 did however set the precedent that Washington higher education institutions cannot withhold identifying information when it can impact the safety of students. 

WWU did not have any comment on the case as it is not their policy to be commenting on any pending litigation. Crittenden could not also comment on specifics of the case because, as he said, “the ink has not dried yet.”