DIGITAL STORIES, INVESTIGATIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS
More work samples available upon request.
KING 5 | Multi-Platform Investigation | 2021
A KING 5 investigation found a years-long pattern of Washington child protection workers dangling basic necessities like a safe, warm place to sleep as a way to get certain “hard to place” foster children to behave or follow orders.
The series detailed how Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) supervisors, including a senior agency administrator, ordered some children to sleep in state vehicles without blankets and in state offices without beds when they acted out or refused to go to placements at foster homes and group homes. The investigation found that on occasion, managers at several DCYF offices also instructed social workers to use coercive tactics to create discomfort for those children – like turning off the heat on a cold night, blasting the car air conditioning to make the youth intentionally cold or not allowing the kids to fall asleep throughout the night.
This investigation is a 2022 duPont-Columbia Awards finalist and a 2022 IRE finalist.
KING 5 | Multi-Platform Investigation | 2021-2022
“COVID Exemptions for a Price” is a multi-part KING 5 investigation that revealed the failings of Washington state’s medical disciplinary boards to identify and protect the public from health care providers who are driven by profits or ideology.
The series highlighted one doctor’s brazen disregard for health measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and it shed light on the state’s failure to take meaningful action against medical professionals who are the subject of COVID-19 related complaints.
KING5.com | Multimedia Narrative | December 13, 2020
Taylor and her co-reporter first met Shayla Zartman, George Floyd’s cousin, at a Washington state protest last summer. They sought out to simply localize a national story about Floyd’s killing by featuring one of his Washington state relatives, who was fighting racism as an activist. But within hours of meeting Shayla, a much deeper story emerged: she was quietly fighting a years-long racial reckoning of her own.
“Enough” is a multi-platform project about Shayla's journey to find her place in the world, as the daughter of a white mother and a Black father, who grew up in an overwhelmingly white community. Caught in the middle — never Black enough to be Black; never white enough to be white — some multiracial men and women live their whole lives without coming to terms with their identity. But Floyd’s killing would help Shayla discover hers.
This story is a 2021 Online Journalism Awards "feature" finalist.
KING5.com | Longform Multimedia Narrative | October 23, 2017
Taylor was named a 2018 Livingston Award finalist for her work on this long-form multimedia narrative, which tells the story of a Washington state sex trafficking victim's journey to freedom.
Jennifer Tucker was trapped in the sex industry — beaten, raped and manipulated by customers and pimps for years. But something stronger than chains held her captive.
KING 5 | Multi-Platform Investigation | 2018 - 2019
Taylor won a Peabody Award for this multi-part, year-long investigation, which revealed the stunning failures of Washington public schools to provide support and services for students with disabilities.
She and co-reporter Susannah Frame uncovered cases where districts segregated students from their non-disabled peers, unnecessarily restrained and isolated students in closet-like rooms, and warehoused students with the most severe disabilities instead of providing them their civil and legal right to an appropriate education.
KING 5 & NBC News | Multi-Platform Investigation | February 14, 2020
Authorities who make decisions to take kids away from their parents give significant weight to Dr. Elizabeth Woods' opinions. She's regarded as one of Washington state's leading experts in identifying subtle signs of child abuse. But this investigation revealed she lacks key medical training for assessing child abuse cases.
In four cases reviewed by reporters, child welfare workers took children from parents based on Woods’ reports — including some in which Woods misstated key facts, according to a review of records — despite contradictory opinions from other medical experts who said they saw no evidence of abuse.
Taylor co-reported this story with Mike Hixenbaugh of NBC News. The joint KING 5-NBC News investigation included two broadcast reports and a written story published on both news outlets' websites.
Follow Up Investigation (March 2021): Tacoma doctor removed from expert role in diagnosing child abuse amid questions about her credibility
KING 5 | Broadcast Investigation | 2018 - 2019
Taylor's multi-part 18-month investigation revealed Army leaders punished and kicked out struggling soldiers with less-than-honorable discharges for behaviors caused by the medical conditions they developed as a result of their service to our country. The veterans, who have complex mental health disorders, lost their guarantee to health care and other benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The investigation found a weakness in the Army safeguards designed to protect soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) from wrongful punishment. The reporting revealed the military commanders who decide a soldier’s fate have the power to overrule their own medical experts, and their power is virtually unchecked.
Taylor uncovered cases where Army leaders in Washington state ignored opinions, recommendations and urgent warnings from medical providers who evaluated and/or treated at-risk soldiers accused of minor misconduct.
KING 5.com | Narrative & Mini-Documentary | March 1, 2019
Taylor followed a Washington state police officer and a former inmate for more than a year to tell this story of their unique friendship and the lessons learned from it.
This story includes a long-form written narrative, in addition to a 9-minute documentary about their relationship.
KING 5 | Multi-Platform Investigation | 2019
This multi-part KING 5 investigation found the Department of Veterans Affairs fumbled the roll out of a federal mandate aimed at providing mental health care to an at-risk group of veterans. Taylor uncovered the VA missed Congress’ deadline to notify eligible veterans of the change, and the department failed to treat the majority of veterans who qualified for help under the law. The investigation also shed light on a need for more training among frontline VA staff. The story featured a former Army special forces medic, who received incorrect information about the law when he visited a local VA facility to seek treatment for his PTSD.
In response to this investigation, five “deeply frustrated” senators sent a letter to the VA demanding immediate corrective action. Members of a U.S. Senate committee also pressed VA Secretary Robert Wilkie for his plan to address the problems KING 5 exposed.
Most Washington police law enforcement agencies
don't use body or dash cameras, KING 5 investigation
finds
KING5.com | Investigation | November 24, 2020
Taylor and her co-reporter, Chris Ingalls, found more than 60 percent of Washington state law enforcement agencies have no camera systems to document police officers' and sheriff's deputies' interactions with the public. The findings are significant because no state agency or organization was tracking the information.
The reporting included interviews with representatives from more than 200 law enforcement agencies. After building a database, Taylor created two searchable interactive graphics on the use of dash cameras and body cameras in Washington state, which accompanied her text piece.
WCPO.com | Photo & Audio Story | May 26, 2016
Most children know too much about their favorite toys, video games and the hottest shows on TV. Meet the Tri-State children who know too much about heroin.
KING5.com | Investigation | September 5, 2018
Students attending hundreds of schools in the state of Washington could face an increased risk of contracting some preventable diseases because immunization completion rates aren't high enough to protect them in the event of an outbreak, a KING 5 analysis of statewide vaccination rates found.
KING5.com | Digital Story | August 14, 2018
Richard "Beebo" Russell left authorities with a blueprint of significant security flaws within the U.S. aviation industry and a wake-up call that counterterrorism and aviation security experts say the country must take seriously.
KING5.com | Photo Story | July 12, 2016
We asked officers and civilians for solutions to improve relationships with each other. Their ideas came in the wake of a deadly week for police and civilians — days after a sniper shot 14 people and killed five Dallas police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest. Earlier that week, two fatal officer-involved shootings in Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minnesota sparked national outcry and led to Seattle-area protests.
KING5.com | Digital Story | October 23, 2017
The unique class is the final and most unconventional part of the punishment for many of the men caught patronizing prostitutes in King County, where local prosecutors and many police agencies have recently shifted their focus to reducing the demand for sex instead of targeting the people who sell it.
KING5.com | Digital Story | April 15, 2017
The man behind the non-profit program says it's not a housing project. It's a community-building project.
KING5.com | Digital Story | March 22, 2017
In the face of a nationwide heroin crisis, more law enforcement agencies are beginning to investigate overdose deaths as crimes, in order to prosecute dealers when the drugs they sell kill their customers.
WCPO.com | Multimedia Digital Story | May 3, 2016
It’s a story that thousands of Tri-State heroin addicts also share — highs so strong and withdrawals so severe that their children aren't guarded from the sight of needles and straws.
KING5.com | Digital Story | March 6, 2018
A good threat assessment plan could be the recipe for stopping the next school shooter. But if Washington school districts have a poor plan in place or no process at all, the state doesn't have a clue.
WCPO.com | Digital Profile | November 30, 2015
Meet Hamilton County coroner, Lakshmi Sammarco.
She's the only person in the county with the power to arrest the Hamilton County sheriff, she's got the FBI's local director on speed-dial and she's earned respect from most in law enforcement as a woman working in what her colleagues call a man's world.