Well, that was by far the most interesting court file I've read in a long, long time.

Although I'm ambivalent about whether the files in Susan Hutchison's gender discrimination lawsuit should've been made public (on the one hand: there's a compelling case that releasing gender discrimination court files has a chilling effect on future lawsuits; on the other, as a candidate for King County Executive, she is a public figure), I'm glad the court decided to make them public... If only for the fact that they provide such a perfect window onto late '90s/early '00s gender, race, and sexual politics.

Hutchison sued her then-employer, KIRO News, for race, gender, and age discrimination after she was demoted, forced to take a 50 percent pay cut, and replaced by a much younger, Asian American woman.

For example: An amazing copy of Hutchison's handwritten notes  from late 2002, transcribed into the court exhibits, featuring accusations by Hutchison of womanizing and drug use at KIRO, duplicated here verbatim (although some names are taken out). In the same court documents, KIRO characterizes Hutchison's claim about womanizing and drug use as "false."

In a newsroom where employees are trained to be observant and curious, the behavior of [general manager John Woodin] and [KIRO's news director] naturally caused raised eyebrows, jokes, disgust, and general disrespect. Most people assumed they were having an "affair"—even though [the news director] is gay, she is attractive and vivacious. Another theory was that the two left the building to "do drugs." ....

On June 5th, John and I were in John's office, mid-afternoon. ... During the conversation, which was amiable as always, I deliberately asked a question of John, which I worded very carefully:

S[usan]: Why do you spend so much time with [the news director]?

[John Woodin] : What do they think, I've made her straight? I'm not that good. [The news director] hasn't been with a man for 15 years, no 20 years, no 15 years. Anyway, did you know her partner left?

S: Yeah.

J: Well, she's on the prowl on the 2nd floor because there are some women who are her type up here... We can't get any privacy in the building so we have to leave to get privacy. Our conversations in the building are sometimes fed back to us word for word. I don't know if it's her office or mine, but people are able to hear what we're saying, so we leave the building.

S: What do you talk about?

J: Personnel issues. Like yours.

And more on Hutchison and the young woman, again from Hutchison's handwritten notes relating a conversation on July 11 or 12, 2002:

J[ohn Woodin]: I think it's time for you to go. You know, you asked me about [the news director], and you've been saying negative things about me, and then there's the two days you called in sick.

S[usan Hutchison]: Well, I've been wanting to talk to talk to you about [the young woman] ... what is her last name?

J: [Redacted]. Her step-mother is on a board with me and asked me to give her a job.

(This is an untruth. John met [the young woman] at a Sonics game, where they sat next to each other and he offered her a job before the game had ended. KIRO was in a hiring freeze because of the tough economic conditions in our industry.

S: The reason I know about [the young woman], is because she is the friend of one of my best friend's daughter['s]. In fact they roomed together in Italy.

(At the word Italy, John flinched noticeably. I knew, but did not say, that he had emailed [the woman] in Italy telling her he was going to take her with him around town and introduce her to the Mariners and other celebrities.

... J: [The woman's] father called me and asked me a lot of questions. He went down a list from your conversation. It was tough.

([The woman's] mother had called me at home to question me about the situation. I had explained to her that people don't get jobs in a newsroom in this manner, that young employees have degrees in journalism, broadcasting, or communications—[the woman] was studying for pre-law. I told her that a good employee was going to be fired to open up a position for [the woman]. The mother... said that [the general manager] had given [the woman] a tour through KIRO and told her she could choose wherever she wanted to work. She said [the woman] chose the newsroom because she liked to write. I explained that this was not a writing job, it was a logistics position, keeping track of crews and satellite trucks, and answering phones. I explained to [the mother] that [the general manger] had a reputation for womanizing, and told her that I didn't think her daughter would benefit from the situation.) ...

S: Besides, ... [the woman] is anorexic.

J: Oh!

S: With the emotional instability that goes with an eating disorder, none of this would be healthy for her.

J: Yeah. Well, I guess I thought if she could prove herself, she might have potential one day. But she didn't even tell me that she hadn't graduated yet. She's still at UW. ...

I was KIRO's longest on-air employee and the only anchor they had had in the main chair for 22 years. My departure had to be handled delicately so that it engendered no bad will with the many viewers who were loyal to me.

There's also the canoe incident, documented by the P-I's Chris Grygiel, and in an affadavit by Woodin:

Hutchison requested some vacation days for the 2002 4th of July holiday but because others had requested that time off before she did she was denied the request. Hutchison then called in sick on July 3, 2002 for July 4 and 5. We had to scramble to fill her slot and then I heard that another KIRO employee had seen Hutchison canoeing in the Bend, Oregon area on those so-called sick days.

On July 12, 200[2] I called Hutchison to a meeting to discuss the vacation/sick days issue. I mentioned she had been seen in Bend and she admitted her husband had planned a family vacation and apologized to me for what happened. I also mentioned an incident concerning [a young woman who] is a student I met at a Sonic [sic] game and was interested in an internship at KIRO after she graduated. ....I received a call from Vehrs [sic] father and met with him.  [The woman's] father and mother were divorced and her forther told me that [her] mother related a conversation with a high-ranking employee at KIRO who had warned the mother about KIRO being a bad environment, not a suitable place for [the young woman]. He specifically mentioned drug abuse and sexual misconduct. I asked if the high-ranking employee was Hutchison and [the woman's] father said yes.

... After discussing the issues internally we decided to suspend Hutchison for five days bcause of the sick leave/vacation issue as of July 29. ...

The decision to move Hutchison to the noon news and special assignments was based on our evaluation of what was needed for a quality news product in this market area and this decision and change had been in the works since 2001. Hutchison's actions concerning the July 4 sick leave and speaking poorly of KIRO to Vehr's [sic] mother were of concern to us but had nothing to do with her on-air assignments. These changes were being worked on for many months before those incidents and Hutchison was clearly aware of the upcoming changes and unhappy about them.

KIRO communications manager Maria Lamarca Anderson responded to our request for comment about Hutchison's allegations with the following statement:

KIRO 7 Television has supported the release of virtually all of the sealed documents from the start of the current proceedings. Overall, we believe the documents speak for themselves and don’t require additional comment. The events described in these documents took place many years ago and generally do not involve our current management team or employees. We are a news organization covering this election along with the rest of the media. We will cover it fairly and objectively and we do not wish to become participants or inject ourselves into the story.