Top FBI Seattle Leadership Requested Seattle Police DUI Report

A top Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent in Seattle personally made a request to the Seattle Police Department (SPD) for records related to an SPD DUI arrest.

FBI Seattle Division Assistant Special Agent In Charge (ASAC) Karen Valaas made the request in December 2025, according to SPD interagency request logs obtained by HardPressed. There is only one person higher in rank than Valaas within the FBI in Washington State; the Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle Field Office.

Why exactly is the top leadership of the FBI Seattle interested in and directly involved in an after-midnight DUI arrest in Ballard? The bureau won't say.

In response to multiple questions from HardPressed, the FBI Seattle wrote that "we do not have a comment to provide on this inquiry."

HardPressed also contacted the 35 year old woman who was arrested in December 2025, however she did not respond to a request for comment.

Less than one block away from her house, she blew a 0.176 into an SPD portable breathalyzer, more than twice the legal limit in Washington State. SPD took her into custody at 12:41 in the morning. No one was injured and SPD provided her with a courtesy ride home after she was processed at the North Precinct.