Records exercise

Page 1. On June 16, 2006, the Seattle P-I requested records on Enrique Fabergas. Who is Enrique and what records did the journalists find?

Enrique Fabregas is a man who was licensed as a foster parent, even though he had multilple referrrals due to allegations from his two foster daughters that he sexually and physically abused them. I believe the documents that the Seattle P.I. found were the 25 referrals about the girls in his file. These referrals came from teachers and other adults in the girls lives that believed Enrique was abusing his daughters. There were also reports found that say Enrique was also doing drugs. The documents were obtained from the Department of Social and Health Sciences.

Page 2. In February of 2005, The Spokesman-Review requested access to something called BART, which was overseen by something called the “Mitigating Circumstances Review Board.” Find the news story that resulted from this request.

"DSHS check clear convicts; 174 kept jobs despite murder, rape and more"

Page 3. This is an internal records release form. How is this different from a public records request?

I am not 100 percent sure, but I'm assuming the internal records are ones that an agency chooses to give to a reporter, and the public records request just ask for all public records that legally have to be given to the reporter if they ask for them. Internal ones would include these legal ones, but also if the agency wants to give more information and more records than they have to.

Page 4. This is the agency’s response to a records request. What does RCW 13.50.100 say about public records?

(1) This section governs records not covered by RCW 13.50.050. (2) Records covered by this section shall be confidential and shall be released only pursuant to this section and RCW 13.50.010. (3) Records retained or produced by any juvenile justice or care agency may be released to other participants in the juvenile justice or care system only when an investigation or case involving the juvenile in question is being pursued by the other participant or when that other participant is assigned the responsibility of supervising the juvenile. Records covered under this section and maintained by the juvenile courts which relate to the official actions of the agency may be entered in the statewide judicial information system. However, truancy records associated with a juvenile who has no other case history, and records of a juvenile's parents who have no other case history, shall be removed from the judicial information system when the juvenile is no longer subject to the compulsory attendance laws in chapter 28A.225 RCW. A county clerk is not liable for unauthorized release of this data by persons or agencies not in his or her employ or otherwise subject to his or her control, nor is the county clerk liable for inaccurate or incomplete information collected from litigants or other persons required to provide identifying data pursuant to this section (In a nutshell...)

Page 5 through 9. Review the pages.

a. It’s actually the same two-page report with two copies in the state records system. Why two copies?

One has notes on it and one does not.

b. What is the priest’s account of how the boy lost a 4-inch clump of hair?

He said that the boy was attempting to run away from the ranch and that he was supposed to give 5 hacks and the boy refused the hacks. The priest said the boy attempted to get up from his chair suddenly while the priest had his hair in his hand, resulting in the chunk being pulled out.

c. What are the alleged and acknowledge forms of corporal punishment at the home?

Haircutting, hacks, hand-slapping


d. Why are notes written on the page but not included in the body of the report? Can you use those if they aren’t in the official report?

Yes, we can use those.

e. The ‘Incident Report’ page has been labeled ‘draft.’ Why was it released?

f. Why is a routing slip included in the report? Find the RCW that requires the release of this slip.

g. Who or what precipitated this investigation?

The mother issued a complaint and a counselor at Morning Star also called.

h. Finally, here’s the story that resulted in 1978. Why did the state refuse to release the report in 1978?

Because of "confidentiality of clients."