If you work in the field of criminal justice, it is hard to look at the prosecution of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito as anything but an injustice.  As a former prosecutor, that was my experience blogging about the subject last year.  (See earlier posts here, here, here, here, and here.)  But now, other criminal justice professionals are joining the chorus of Americans concerned about the fairness of the trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.  Case in point Steve Moore, retired F.B.I. agent.   Moore has 25 years investigating some of the most serious crimes imaginable for the F.B.I.  Steve Moore was not connected at all with the Knox supporters, but he found it hard to be silent after he took a look at Amanda’s case.   Steve Moore’s statement about the case is online at the blog Injustice in Perugia.  Check out the below media interview in which he is interviewed on MSNBC.

I like his point that this crime does not fit Amanda Knox’s character.

MSNBC: You also made the point that this crime does not fit Amanda Knox’s personality profile.

Steve Moore: Amanda Knox is not a violent person. The problem with this is if a person is violent enough…. What they are alleging is that she [Amanda Knox] came in on her roommate who was being sexually assaulted and sided with the assaulter, and not only helped him assault her roommate, but stabbed her in the throat. That kind of deviant violent behavior does not go unnoticed for 18, 19, 20 years. Some things leak out. You see some episodes. You see some indications that the person has some issues. Amanda Knox never had an issue.

As a former prosecutor, that is one of the problems I have never understood, what motive would Amanda Knox have to stab her roommate to death?  A violent stabbing is just not an “entry-level” crime.  A person works their way up to such an offense with a long history of other crimes such as assaults and threats to kill.  The prosecutor Giuliano Mignini just was never able to establish a credible motive for why an average American  college student would rape and murder her roommate.

I noticed this summer that there was a three-way Clerk’s race this summer in Okanogan County:   Charleen Groomes, Cindy Gagne, and Rae Jean Kelley.   Normally clerk’s races are pretty low-key events, and often times the clerks is uncontested.  The out-going clerk, Jackie Bradley, had served in that position for 38 years.  I don’t recall her ever being contested.  (But then again I wasn’t practicing law and blogging back in the 70’s; I was learning how to read and ride a bike.)  Since I didn’t know any of the three candidates, I fired off an email to all three complaining how the current clerk had overcharged me once.  I wrote:

Dear _______,

I was wondering how you felt as a clerk candidate about certain charges to the public.  I once went to the clerks window to look at a file, and i asked for copies made.  The copies were just of an exhibit attached to a declaration.  I did not want the whole filing, the declaration itself, or the other attachments.  However, the person at the window  said if i wanted part of it, i would have to get all of it, and would have to pay to have the whole filing copied.  This didn’t seem right tome, and i was not able to find any other clerk’s office across the state that had a similar policy.  I called to complain to Jackie Bradley and she basically just said “too bad” that is our policy. Isn’t that just a waste of paper, and doesn’t that just result in an over-charge to the public[?]  (Note, that the request was not for a certified copy.)  What do you think about this?  Would you continue the same policy regarding copy costs?  I am just curious.  Thanks.
–Steve

I wasn’t sure what sort of response I would get, but I received thoughtful responses from all three candidates.  Rae Jean Kelley asked around at some other Clerk’s offices and confirmed that the neighboring clerks did not charge for those unnecessary copies.  She indicated that my suggested way of handling the matter could be done, but that she would reserve the right to make the determination depending on the document copy requested.  Charlene Groomes didn’t seem to agree with the current policy either, and indicated that she would review such policies if elected.  The candidate Cindy Gagne seemed like she was the most ardent supporter of the change of these fees.  However, she was beaten in the primary.  Wanna learn more about the clerk candidate Charleen Groomes or Rae Jean Kelley?  Check out their Facebook campaign sites here and here. They both are republicans.

The Star – Online broke a news story earlier this month about a local bar owner who announced his plan to have topless dancers at his establishment in Grand Coulee.  See story.  Ted Wolf, the owner of Wolf’s Den Tavern, apparently announced his intentions at a city council meeting.  The city’s police chief reviewed the city code, and apparently did not find any prohibition on such an activity.  The news story explains the regulations that one would face would come from the State Liquor Control Board.  Under the law, if it weren’t for the Tavern’s liquor license, the government would be limited in its ability to restrict such topless dancing.   The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that the expression of a nude dancer receives constitutional protection.  See Kitsap County v. Kev Inc. (1986).  Courts consider nude dancing “low value” speech, but nevertheless speech that is protected by the first amendment.  In Erznozick v. City of Jacksonville (1975) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that entertainment involving nudity cannot be banned.   However, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that States may prohibit sexually explicit live entertainment in places where alcohol is served because states are vested with the power to regulate alcohol under the 21st Amendment.  New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca (1981).   In Washington, the State does allow topless dancing at bars provided that the dancers are compensated and remain on a stage 6 feet away from patrons.  See WAC 314-11-050.  These sort of performances are not typically very lucrative for the licensees, and as reported by The Star, only one such topless bar exists in Eastern Washington.    Most nude dancing occurs in establishments that only serve soft drinks.  In some of those alcohol-free establishments, it is pretty much anything goes if you believe the frequent news reports of west-side newspapers.  However, local governments are able to prevent dancer-on-patron contact with local regulations.   For example the city of Bellevue prohibits fully nude dancers from coming within 4 feet of patrons, requires stages to be well-lit, and requires that the “adult cabarets” close by 2 a.m.  The State Supreme Court found Bellevue’s ordinance to be constitutional in the case of Ino Ino, Inc. v. Bellevue (1993).  In that case, the court rejected the argument of the dancers that the lighting and proximity restrictions interfered with their freedom of expression.   In this country, dancing involving nudity is subject to what we call “time, place, and manner” restrictions.   Oftentimes, local officials attempt to restrict the dancing so much that clubs simply give up and move to other locales.  Such intent on the part of city officials is hard to prove, and State Supreme Court has explained that “a court should not strike down an otherwise constitutional statute on the assumption that the legislative body had a wrongful purpose.”  See Ino Ino, Inc. v. Bellevue.  Additionally, courts have upheld local zoning ordinances that prohibit “adult” establishments within 1000 feet of a church, park, school, or even a residence.  Such was the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Renton v. Playtime Theaters (1986), a case that originated in Renton, Washington.  These strict regulations were found to be justifiable due to the “secondary effects” of adult entertainment, meaning the crime and prostitution and drug use that often is associated with these clubs.  I am not sure that merely providing topless dancers would justify such stringent regulation.  Adult bookstores and “lap-dance” clubs, particularly when concentrated in certain areas, are bound to have more problems then a single tavern providing dancing only on Friday and Saturday nights.   Additionally, many local governments do not have any nudity-restrictions at all when it come to the female breast.   It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  The city of Grand Coulee is attempting to change their ordinances right now to stop Ted Wolf from allowing topless dancing at his Wolf’s Den Tavern.

What do you think?  Should Grand Coulee take active steps to try to prevent such dancing within city limits?

I received a letter in the mail last week from Cindy Zapotocky, Chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party.

Laurell Siddoway

The letter was addressed “Dear friends of liberty and freedom.” The letter urges me to donate money to Harvey Dunham in his challenge of incumbant judge Laurel Siddoway for Division Three of the Court of Appeals. The letter warns of Laurel Siddoway’s ties to the ACLU as if that were some sort of seditious organization. (Reading through the letter, it was clear that I got on this mailing list because I once donated money to a Republican that is supporting Harvey Dunham.) Laurel Siddoway’s ties to the ACLU seem to be what really motivates Harvey Dunham’s supporters. I saw a letter to the editor in the Spokesman-Review last week that makes this omninous warning about Siddoway:

[She] supports the American Civil Liberties Union. Voters should learn that Roger Baldwin was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and he was an original officer, along with such notables of Communist Party history as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Louis Budenz and William Z Foster. Baldwin’s continuous radical career and cooperation with Communists and anarchists and socialists is of more than 50 years duration.

This letter seemed a little goofy, but Harvey Dunham actually puts a link to this letter on his website as if it were a notable endorsement. See site. In rural eastern Washington, implying that someone was a communist because he or she is affiliated with ACLU is a time honored smear tactic. Locals did that to John Goldmark when he ran for State Legislature in the 1960s and Goldmark ended up suing his opponents for libel and winning. See source. To me, this tactic of the Harvey Dunham supporters seems really desperate.

Harvey Dunham

Also, why is Harvey Dunham implying that he is running against Siddoway because she is too liberal?  Two years ago he ran against conservative Kevin Korsmo, and I am sure career prosecutor Kevin Korsmo was not a member of the ACLU.  I just don’t think Harvey Dunham is that qualified to be a court of appeals judge.  He really hasn’t done a whole lot to set himself apart as a lawyer, and has chose not to participate in polls of the bar association members.  I have joined many Republicans in supporting conservative judges Richard Sanders and Jim Johnson but I can’t really get excited about Harvey Dunham due to his lack of credentials.   Laurel Siddoway has been rated “Well Qualified” by the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.   Her website is here.

I notified Ferry County recently of my intention to give up the legal contract for GMA (Growth Management Act). I have defended Ferry County from GMA appeals for 12 years. For five of those years, I was the elected prosecutor. When I did not run for re-election in 2002, the county commissioners kept me on for a “temporary basis” that has stretched on to today. The work has been exciting, and was constantly changing. I worked with eight different county commissioners. I watched each one learn a great deal about the complex Growth Management Act, and watched their outlook on the law change as the law itself changed. When I first started representing the county, a lawyer on the coast told me that there was no such thing as a GMA expert. The law was too new, and everyone, including the Growth Management Hearings Board was still learning as they went.

I decided to give up the contract this year because I got too busy with my criminal work. I have had three homicide jury trials this year already, and have one more to go. These homicide cases obviously take a lot of time. Also, another reason I gave the work up was some of the people on the planning commission that I enjoyed working with have moved on.

My last day will be August 31st. My only hesitancy in leaving is my concern about the defense of the county from new threats that have emerged in the last year. The groups Riparian Owners of Ferry County and the Stevens County Farm Bureau have both filed recent appeals or petitions against Ferry County. The cases were soundly rejected by the GMA Board, and no appeals to court followed. But further appeals from the Riparian Owners of Ferry County and the Stevens County Farm Bureau would mean a considerable increase in defense costs on top of what is expended to defend the county from Futurewise and the Concerned Friends of Ferry County.

I may still do some GMA work for private clients from time to time. Since I have been in private practice, I have on occasion done GMA work in other counties. I represented private landowners and farmers in GMA appeals in Stevens County against a city government. Additionally, I have done some consulting work to private parties in Okanogan County. We will see what the future holds.

I blogged last month about Northwest Justice, and their Tenants Rights class in Colville.  See post. Now the class is coming to Republic, WA.  You need to sign up in advance, and the class is 9 to 12 at the Northern Inn Conference Room on July 23rd.  I didn’t attend the class in Colville, but I would imagine the class would help educate tenants about their rights on such matters as landlord entry for inspections, a tenants options when a landlord delays repairs, and what to do when you are behind on rent, what your rights are when facing eviction, and what to do when a landlord doesn’t return your deposit.   The class is a good public service because a lot of attorneys (me included) do not handle landlord-tenant matters.  Another good resource is here.

I just finished reading Murder in Italy by Candace Dempsey, a book about the murder trial in Italy of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.  The book is disturbing in its coverage of the media in this case, particularly of the British and Italian press.  Candace Dempsey is an award winning writer and blogs for the Seattle PI.   In her book, Dempsey documents several efforts by British tabloid Daily Mail to pay UW classmates of Amanda Knox for stories about her.    The British tabloid Telegraph.co.uk alleged that after Amanda Knox found out her roommate had been murdered, she went out on a shopping spree for lingerie.   In fact, she had to buy new underwear because the police cordoned off her apartment.   Nevertheless, the Telegraph quoted an Italian shopkeep as offering the opinion that she did not show remorse in the right way.  This seems like one of those stories that was paid for.  In other instances, the Italian authorities improperly took the diary of Amanda Knox and leaked it to the press.

The British and Italian tabloids that wrote these sensationalistic stories seem to ignore a classic rule of journalism, i.e. the two source rule.  Under the two source rule, a journalist would seek corroboration from a different source for scandalous allegations like the above.   The journalistic codes of several American tabloids in the U.S. operate the same way.  I remember being contacted a while ago by the National Enquirer about a murder case I was prosecuting.  They interviewed me for about ten minutes, and declined my offer to send down court documents to back up what I claimed.  “That won’t be necessary” I was told.   The paper than ran a story based on what I said alone.   I do remember that the reporter often would try to get me to say sensationalistic things.  The reporter, who had a British accent incidentally, would say, “I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but that sounds outrageous!”.  When I just answered “uh-Huh”, he just repeated the same “question”, but I never took the hint and said “outrageous” for him, which was what he apparently wanted.

Much of the bad press coverage mentioned in Candace Dempsey’s book didn’t even seem intentional, rather it was just sloppy.  For example, the tabloids printed a supposed excerpt from Amanda’s diary, that read as follows:

That night I smoked a lot of marijuana and I fell asleep at my boyfriend’s house.  I don’t remember anything.  But I think it is possible that Raffaele went to Meredith’s house, raped her and then killed her.  And then when he got home while I was sleeping, he put my fingerprints on the knife.  But I don’t understand why Raffaele would do that.

In reality, Candace Dempsey explains that this excerpt was a bad translation of English to Italian, and back to English.  The actual text of the diary was:

Raffaele and I have used this knife to cook, and it’s impossible that Meredith’s DNA is on the knife because she’s never been to Raffaele’s apartment before.   So unless Raffaele decided to get up after I fell asleep, grabbed said knife, went over to my house, used it to kill Meredith, came home, cleaned the blood off, rubbed my fingerprints all over it, put it away, then tucked himself into bed, and then pretended really well the next couple of days, well, I just highly doubt all of that.

In another instance of bad translation, Amanda Knox’s childhood soccer-field nickname “Foxy Knoxy” was translated by the Italian press as “Volpe Cattiva”.  Volpe meaning fox, and Cattiva meaning bad, wicked or naughty.

In the U.S., we learn in school that irresponsible journalism is just the price we pay for having a strong first amendment, and a free press.  But in Italy, you have to wonder, because the freedom of the press is much more limited.  The Italian courts are still full of criminal liable charges which would be unconstitutional in the U.S. under the Supreme Court decision of New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964. In fact Amanda Knox is now facing criminal libel charges in Italy for maintaining that she was hit in the head by Italian investigators when they pressured her to confess during an all-night interrogation. We should also recall how much harassment Italian journalist Mario Spezi has faced from the police.  See here.

In light of the Italian government’s strict control of the press, why were the false stories about Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito allowed to continue?

Last summer, I wrote a post about the Amanda Knox case, and mentioned how King County Superior Court Judge Mike Heavey was among the local people trying to help Amanda.

Judge Michael Heavey

I wrote that Judge Heavey wrote to the to the Italian council that regulates judges to protest the leaks from the prosecutor, police and prison officials to the tabloid press.  Well, I read last month in Mary Whisner blog last month that the judge was accused by the Judicial Conduct Commission of violating judicial ethics rules by writing that letter.  The complaint alleges that Heavey misused the prestige of his office by advocating for Knox and criticizing the Italian authorities prosecuting the case.  The complaint alleges that Heavey may have violated the state rule that judges “should not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others.”  Apparently, what real irked the commission is that Heavey wrote the letter on official court stationary.  In Heavey’s response that he filed with the commission, he seems to concede that he should not have used official stationary.  Judge Heavey’s daughters attended the same school as Amanda Knox.

My question is this:  Since when can’t judges (at least in their private capacity) write letters to speak out on civil rights abuses overseas?  If the judge had spoken out in defense of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, I don’t think the judicial conduct commission would have cared.  Maybe when the country is a fellow NATO country things are a little different.  Also it should be pointed out that Judge Michael Heavey made it very clear that he was writing the letters not as a judge but as a father.  Doesn’t that make a difference?  Let’s buy Judge Heavey some of his own stationary at Office Depot, and then maybe the CJC will dismiss the charges. 

For prior posts on the Amanda Knox case see here, here, here, here, and here.

The City of Seattle released a new page on their website that maps crime locations.  See site.  It looks like a mashup of Google Earth and a sex offender map that the King County S.O. provides.   But in this database multiple crimes are listed at the address that they occurred.  In addition, you can click the link to the individual icon to see a copy of a corresponding police report.

Seattle crime map shows locations of various offenses with links to police reports

According to the Seattle Police Department press release, the site was developed to provide access to crime information that people were asking about, and also to further the department’s goal of transparency.   The new site is so popular that the site crashed due to the number of visitors.  The site is interesting, and everyone can see the crimes in their neighborhood, but it is hard to see what the real practical purpose of the site is.  My older son goes to college in Seattle, and when I ran the crime stats in his Belltown neighborhood for the last 30 days, I did see that a man was shot to death a block away from my son’s apartment.  Under the city’s monopoly-like icon system, a homicide is represented by a black figure lying prone with a red background.   As a criminal defense lawyer, I can’t really think of much of a practical purpose this site would have for my practice.  The press release did not mention how much this new site cost, or how expensive it is to maintain.  I do know that Seattle has had a budget deficit, and was contemplating layoffs last year.   Under the city’s icon system, each type of crime has its own symbol.  The only crime that does not seem to be listed are sex crimes.   This was done to protect the identity of the victim.   You have to wonder a little about how this would affect the real estate market in Seattle.  Are prospective home buyers going to consult this map?  Particularly when a viewer zooms out, Seattle does seem to have a lot of crime.  I have got to believe that the biggest fans of this site are going to be amateur sleuths who will study the map with an OCD-type fixation on patterns of crimes.  Remember the Green River Killer and how many people followed that case and “assisted” in the investigation?  If you click the icon on this new map, it is amazing how much data is in the online version of the police report.  Below is a copy of the report pertaining to the most recent shooting in Belltown. (Click on the image for better resolution)
  

What do you think of this new site?

Think about the last time you received a traffic ticket.  The officer writes down your name and address, vehicle information, and then he or she signs the ticket, right?  Well, when a traffic camera catches you driving through a red light, it works a little bit differently.  The officer reviews the photos at a computer terminal and “signs” the tickets electronically, simply by pushing a button.  The ticket is then printed out in another state, and it is mailed to you and the court.  Attorney John Clark of Spokane is challenging this process; he points to the law that requires an officer’s “signature” on each ticket.  See article.   Does a computer generated signature count?  How many of you have signed a check or signed a rental agreement with a computer generated signature?  Probably not many.  However, my guess is that the court will uphold the legality of these computer-generated signatures.  While we typically think of a signature as a person writing their own name, usually in cursive, a signature can take many forms.   According to Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th edition, “A signature may be written by hand, printed, stamped, typewritten, engraved, photographed or cut from one instrument and attached to another…And whatever mark, symbol, or device one may choose to employ as representative of himself is sufficient.”  Additionally, while it may not be widely known, the “electronic signature” is actually becoming more and more common.  It is not like the police invented this practice.   Last year, when I borrowed money for my older son’s college tuition, I “signed” the master promissory note online with an electronic signature.  I guess we will see how the court rules on this whole thing.

Speaking of red light tickets in Spokane, I saw last week a photoshield on a license plate.  A photoshield is a clear plastic cover a person buys to put over their license plate to prevent a red light camera from reading their plate.  The cover is transparent but creates glare for the traffic camera.  The same glare effect can also be created by a spray-on can.  These devices have already been outlawed in some states, such as Pennsylvania, but are still apparently legal here in Spokane.  We will see how long that lasts.   Below is a video from Tech TV on the subject.   As an attorney, I would advise people to avoid these products.  Let’s say you use this product on your car, and you do actually injure someone in a traffic accident.  How is it going to look to a judge or jury when the state trooper testifies about the covering to your license plate?  There is a special term we use in the law to describe a plan, formed in advance, to break the law.  The term is “premeditation.”

For previous stories on the intersection of technology and the law, see Drones and Privacy, C.S.I. High, Taser Cams, Robbery on Video, & Twitter and Public Meetings.