The Republican Spokane Prosecutor candidates will square off tomorrow (Monday the 21st) for the first time in a debate hosted by the Republicans of Spokane County. The three Republican candidates are Steve Tucker, David Stevens, and Chris Bugbee.  It starts at 6:30 p.m. at Quality Inn Suites at I-90 and Argonne in the Spokane Valley.  See story in the blog Spin Control.  The “moderator” will be Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.  You have to wonder a little about what they were thinking in having Knezovich handle this thing.  It seems that the best moderators are the ones who do not draw attention to themselves, and rather help educate the voters about the candidates.  Ozzie Knezovich may have not endorsed any particular candidate, but he is hardly impartial.  The incumbent Steve Tucker is actually Knezovich’s lawyer, at least in the sense that Tucker is the county attorney, and his office gives legal advice to county departments.  Knezovich is also busy himself in pushing for the new jail he wants, and this project has been hampered somewhat by the fact that Steve Tucker has had a hard time filling the current jail with convicts.  Knezovich announced layoffs of 57 jail employees in Spokane last month.  See story.  Meanwhile the Spokane Police Guild has already endorsed one of Tucker’s opponents, Chris Bugbee.  The Guild, in a public statement, opined that Tucker is too inclined to settle cases, and that Bugbee is more inclined to “fight regardless of the consequences.”  The other thing about the debate is that the public who attends will want to hear about the candidates from their prospective, not necessarily from the prospective of the sheriff.  The Spin Control blog jokes with readers that at least having the Sheriff there will keep the peace.  But my guess is that the event will be pretty bland.  A better bet for excitement will be across town, as the Spokane City Council considers again an ordinance granting more powers to the local police ombudsman.  The City Council meeting is at City Hall (of course) at 6 p.m. the same night as the debate.  I have blogged in the past about the need for reform in this area.  The new proposed law before the city council would give the independent ombudsman greater authority by conducting independent investigations of police officer actions.   Lately, the ombudsman reversed his stance and is now asking the council for the right to examine allegations of police misconduct independent of the police internal investigation.  Apparently he had said last year that this was unnecessary.   Some of the same people who have been pushing for police reform are also strong critics of Steve Tucker (see this blog for example).   It looks like Tucker will get a little break Monday night, as proponents of police reform cannot be in two places at once.

A couple of years ago, the state Access to Justice Board tried to increase the presence of pro bono legal services in the rural parts of the State.   The Northwest Justice Project opened four new offices across the state, including an office in Colville.   The office is at 132 W 1st Avenue where the barber shop used to be.  It is right next door to Cafe 103.   The Northwest Justice Project (NJP) is a not-for-profit statewide organization that provides free civil legal services to low-income people.  For you Facebook junkies, the NJP just started a site right here.  It is low on content and friends, but was just started last week.  What does NJP offer?  Well, they are having a class in Colville on your rights as a tenant.  I don’t do eviction cases, so I was glad to post their flyer in my lobby.  The class will be taught by NJP lawyer Kerry Summers and one other lawyer whose name escapes me.  If you live in Ferry or Pend Oreille County, you don’t have to drive to Colville.  There will be classes coming to Republic and to Newport too I believe.

Dennis Morgan is running for prosecutor this year against Mike Sandona.  As I mentioned in a blog post last April, appeals work can be pretty low profile.  At least that used to be true before TVW.  TVW is the CSPAN of Washington State.  Dennis Morgan is often on TVW because he often makes the drive from Republic to Olympia to argue cases at the  State Supreme Court.  Dennis Morgan has been practicing for about 35 years, and is recognized State-wide for his legal abilities. Check him out in his most recent appearance on TVW.
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If you look closely, you can see some of the Supreme Court Justices I have blogged about in the past.  Justice Richard Sanders is present, who I blogged about here.   Also, Justice Gerry Alexander is present, who I blogged about here.

The Dennis Morgan / Mike Sandona prosecutor race is set for August for the primary, and November for the general election.  Morgan’s Facebook campaign page is here.  I look forward to seeing the candidate’s night featuring Dennis Morgan and Mike Sandona.   The general election will decided the race for Ferry County Prosecutor on November 3rd, 2010.  Mike Sandona was elected to the position in November 2006 in a race against James Von Sauer and Alexander Wirt.

I was looking at the Spring/Summer issue of Mac|Life this week, and was a little blown away at the announcement that private drones would soon be available to “surveil you’re enemies from above.”   If you ever tried an old remote-control helicopter, you know that they are shaky and unreliable, and often crash.  This new flying machine is a quadricopter (four rotors), and comes equipped with two video cameras.  You control the drone with your iphone, and it streams the video back to your screen.  Check out this YouTube clip for an idea of how it works:

You have to wonder about the writers at Mac|Life who suggested that this invention is the “best app ever”.  Mac|Life’s adoring “review” of this product has no thoughtful discussion of its potential for abuse.  It is one thing to understand theoretically that the C.I.A. can read a license plate off of your car, or to know that Google Earth has a grainy photo of your backyard online.  But it is another thing entirely for the geeky neighbor kid to be flying this around outside your second story window.  It is one thing to be “watched” from above, and another thing to be watched from all sides.

I remember in law school learning about the legal principle that states that a property owner owns his or her parcel all the way from the center of the earth up to the heavens.  I looked this principle up again today, and the notion dates back to William Blackstone, who in 1766 wrote  it in Latin: “Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad caelum et ad inferos.”  So is it trespassing to fly this over your neighbors house and spy on him?  As with most laws in Washington, the RCW code takes a while to catch up on new technology.  Example:  In July 21st, 2000, a perv named Richard Sorrells ran around Seattle Center with a mini-video recorder in his hand that he pointed up girls skirts.  He was arrested, but he beat the charges because he never actually touched the girls, and there was no law that prohibited such filming.    Well, it took about three years, but the slow-pokes in our state legislature finally figured out video cameras were now smaller than a Super 8 mm.  On May 12th, 2003 the legislature enacted RCW 9A.44.115 which made such filming a felony.  How long will it take for the legislature to prohibit someone from buzzing a drone through your yard while you are having a barbecue?

Would it be permissible for the police to fly a drone over your garden to look for marijuana plants growing?  It will be interesting to see how how this develops.   Basically, under Washington law, the police are allowed to fly over your house and look for marijuana gardens.  The State Supreme Court ruled in State v. Wilson (1999) that such a flight does not invade a persons privacy as long as the planes comply with the FAA rule that fixed-wing aircraft remain at an altitude of 500 feet.   Currently, the only marijuana-spotting drones in use by law enforcement in the U.S. are in Northern California.  There, the Forest Service uses drones to look for large marijuana gardens on public lands.  Under law, an individual has a lesser expectation of privacy while on public land, than at his home.  In Europe however, the police have begun to use drones to fly-over and observe activities on private property.   The police in the U.K. used a drone to catch a car thief, before being told such use was not allowed without a permit by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority.  See story.  In the Netherlands, the police have begun using drones to look for marijuana grows.  See video:

Is it just me or is this drone technology pretty scary? Where are we going to be in 5 or 10 years on this issue? What do you think?

On Tuesday, attorney Charles Wiggins visited Ferry and Stevens County in his bid to run for the State Supreme Court.  He is running against incumbent judge Richard Sanders.  I was invited to hear Wiggins speak, but wasn’t able to attend because of my court schedule.  I would have liked to have met him, because the Wiggins / Sanders judicial race is by far the most interesting judicial race in the State.

Wiggins is a lawyer who has spent most of his career in private practice.  He was appointed by the governor to serve as an appeals court judge, but when he ran to retain his position he was he defeated in the next election.

Supreme Court Candidate Charles Wiggins

Much of the focus of his website is critiquing Judge Sanders as being unethical.  I guess the main criticisms were 1) that Richard Sanders visited some inmates on a tour of a prison, and it turned out some of the inmates had cases pending before the court, and 2) that Richard Sanders issued a decision in a public records case that set a legal precedent for a pending case,where Sanders himself had a similar public records issue.

Sanders is pretty outspoken, and sometimes that gets him into trouble.  I first remember him irritating other judges when he spoke at an anti-abortion rally.  Usually, judges are slower to publicly address issues like that.  I remember when Sanders was running for judge in 1998, he was challenged by then Assistant Attorney General Greg Canova.  The Greg Canova campaign asserted that 38 of the 39 elected prosecutors supported him.  I actually think that number was 37, because I was an elected prosecutor then, and I did not support Canova, and I think there was one other besides me.  One of the thing that irks me about some judges, is when they fail to require that the government follow the same laws as everyone else.  Sanders often writes biting dissents criticizing such government actions.   I recall reading his dissent in Hillis v. Department of Ecology, in which he called the State’s failure to comply with permit deadlines “scandalous”.   Justice Sanders was also one of two justices to side with Ferry County on its GMA issues when we went to the Supreme Court in 2005.  Justice Sanders is often hard to predict, and if you really want to know how outspoken he is, you really need to check out a good Seattle PI story here.

Richard Sanders

The story explains how Sanders was at a Federalist Society meeting in D.C. and Sanders got tired of the U.S. Attorney General defending George Bush’s treatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees.  Sanders stood up in the audience and yelled “Tyrant! You’re a Tyrant” and then stormed out.  If you want to listen to this incident, check out it out here, and Sander’s outburst occurs at 17 minutes and 28 seconds into the video.

I mentioned in a blog post earlier this month that Justice Sanders’ Facebook fan page led all other candidates, he has almost 1300 fans.

I am on the road for court a lot, and I am too cheap to by a AT&T wireless internet card for my MacBook.

Finding a Wi-Fi signal in the rural West can be challenging

So that means I am constantly looking for a coffee shop with  good Wi-Fi signal.  And they are harder to find then you might think.  So I figured I would start an on-line list.  Please email me or comment if you know of others.  I am only interested in coffee shops with free wi-fi in the 509 area code.  Urbanspoon.com has tried to catalog the free Wi-Fi coffee shops here, but tons of good shops are missing.  You will note that that site has a place where you can nominate othersites for inclusion, but they have not added any of my suggestions, and it has been 6 weeks. 🙁

In Colville, Washington, check out Cafe 103 – This place is in Colville on Main Street, 103 North Main in fact.  Check out their Facebook page here.   Cafe 103 has good free high-speed wi-fi, and good coffee, and a restaurant.  I have only had a sandwich there one.  Also check out Fairy Tale Bakery – This place doesn’t have a big web presence, but their Merchant Circle page is here.  They have free wi-fi, and good coffee and food, and maybe more pastries then Cafe 103.  Since they are just 4 or 5 blocks from Cafe 103, the Fairy Tale Bakery is probably their main competitor.  I don’t know which is better, but I know the Fairy Tale bakery is closed on Sundays and Mondays.  They are at 576 North Wynne, and it is one block North of Safeway.

In Chewelah, check out the Cougar Bakery, which just opened up where Treffz used to be.  In fact, the Treffz sign is still up.  I just got a coffee there Sunday, but didn’t try their food.  But its got Wi-Fi and is just one or two blocks off of HWY 395, so I am definitely putting them on this list.  They are at 209 East Main St.   You gotta love their minimalist web presence, here. UPDATE FROM 11/27/10: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED.  They still hadn’t removed the Trefz sign that the previous owners had left.  I hope something new moves in there, or maybe Chewelah will be just another town with a bunch of “for rent” signs in every store front.  Is there another wi-fi coffee shop in Chewelah that doesn’t suck? Let me know.

In Spokane, check out Madeleine’s –  I went to this place for breakfast two days in a row last weekend.  It is at the corner of Main and Wall in downtown Spokane.  Parking can be a pain.

In Omak, check out The Corner Bistro at 19 E. Apple Avenue.  It is basically right behind the Chinese Restaurant on the main drag.  I think it is called China Star or something like that.  I lived in Omak for 3 weeks last month, and ate at this place lots.  Good Wi-Fi.

In Ephrata, check out the Rock Creek Ice Cream shop on 26 Basin Street NW which is pretty much the main drag in town.  It is owned by the Blue Flame Restaurant next door and they have free wi-fi.  This place just opened up recently.  The ice cream shop also serves espresso.  Nice place.   The nice folks who run the place have heavy accents, so when you ask for the wi-fi password, you may want them to write it down for you.

What am I missing?  Are there any in Kettle Falls, Addy, Soap Lake, Tonasket (actually i just thought of one I can add later), Deer Park?  Let me know.  I won’t do new posts, I will just add this list.  The criteria for listing is that they must have a free, good Wi-Fi signal.  It is o.k. if you have to get their password.  All the nieghbor kids don’t need to be mooching the signal 24/7.  I don’t really want to list restaurants per se, because you need to be able to just buy a 2 dollar coffee and sit their for 90 minutes without feeling out of place.  And the places can’t suck, for whatever reason.

Today was the Republic / Curlew Mock Trial Competition in Ferry County.  Judge Kevin Korsmo from the Court of Appeals came to town to serve as our judge.  After serving as our mock trial judge for 3 years in a row, Kevin Korsmo has developed a considerable local fan base, and students welcomed him to town by posting a large banner at the courthouse.  Korsmo is a judge at the Court of Appeals in Spokane and makes a near 3 hour trip to Republic to work with the youth.

Attorney Steve Graham enjoys a donut during a court recess

He crosses the highest mountain pass in the state to come, and it is not unheard of to have snow on this pass in May.  The teams consist of the senior classes of the local high schools.  The coaches are local attorneys, and the school teachers have also developed expertise as they have taught numerous mock trial classes over the years.  The teachers are Don Nelson of Curlew High School, and Shawn Corbin of Republic High School.  The two high schools are rivals in many school sports, and the mock trial has become something of a rivalry too.  I believe that Curlew had not won since 2004, and the Curlew kids came into the competition with a strong desire to bring the trophy home.  The mock trial competition consists of two trials actually.  Using a hypothetical fact scenario provided by the national association, each teacher creates a prosecution and defense side.  In the morning, it became clear that Curlew held an edge.  And after the judge announced Curlew the winner of that round, the Curlew kids left for lunch feeling confident.  But after lunch, it soon became clear that the advantage was shifting to Republic High School.  It dawned on the Curlew kids that the trophy might remain in Republic after all.

Local attorney Dennis Morgan watches the mock trial. Morgan often practices in front of Judge Korsmo at the Court of Appeals.

The students, teachers, parents, and courthouse staff all watched with full attention as the two schools fought for every advantage.  The Republic team made good use of objections that seemed to trip up Curlew at times.  At the completion of the trial, the judge announced that the overall point total went to Curlew High School.  Judge Kevin Korsmo announced that he would be returning to judge the competition for as long we would have him.  Judge Korsmo afterward posed with the students.  Judge Korsmo handed out awards to the students who won in specific areas.  The best defense lawyer award went to Katie Torzewski of Curlew High School.  The best prosecution lawyer award went to Matt Slagle of Republic.   The best prosecution witness award went to Amy Angstrom, and the best defense witness award went to Katy Lee Lewis, both of Curlew.  For more on the mock trial, check out the Unofficial Curlew / Republic Mock Trial Page on Facebook.

I don’t belong to any civic groups, and the mock trial is pretty much the only volunteer work that I do.  It usually takes about 20 or 25 hours to coach the kids.  It is definitely pretty fun.

Well it’s the end of an era.  Prosecutor Jonnie Bray of the Colville Confederated Tribes is calling it quits on May 28th, after about 15 years with the tribe.  She seemed like a permanent fixture in Nespelem, outlasting police chiefs,  judges, public defenders,  and council members.

Council table for the prosecution in Tribal Court.

Never the permanent lead prosecutor, Bray took less of a leadership roll, and more the roll of the “heavy-lifter”.  In what seemed like a thankless job, she took on the cases of legal complexity, the jurisdictional disputes, the tough sex crimes, and homicides.  Often working without a lead prosecutor, the work (from the outsider’s perspective) seemed pretty overwhelming, and I often wondered when things would “snap”.  But they never did.  Although my contacts with Tribal leadership were pretty limited, I never really got the impression that people fully appreciated just how much she held things together down there.   In a court system where people often bite their tongues, Bray was usually pretty outspoken with her observations.  In an interview with a reporter from The Wenatchee-World last year, Bray wasn’t shy about questioning why the FBI and federal prosecutor don’t assist more in prosecutions on Indian land.  (See story).  As with any rural area, the jury pool in Tribal Court is small and can be wary of law enforcement.    Bray had a knack for convictions, and out-of-town defense lawyers usually preferred to square off against the non-tribal, juris-doctorate types, who were usually selected as lead prosecutor or special prosecutor.

I asked Bray once about her short stint as a defense lawyer 15 years ago.  She said she realized that she wanted to be a prosecutor after working on defending her first child abuse case.  Jonnie Bray will be moving to the Southwest to go work for the Hopi Nation.   The Hopi are lucky to have her.

There is nothing to make a lawyer feel like he is getting old then when his classmates from law school start donning black robes.  And for me, that classmate is Kevin McCann.  Check out his website Kevin McCann for District Court Judge, or “like” his Facebook site here.   Kevin was one of those lawyers who was a good guy even when he was in law school.  (For 80% of my law school class, I would support their opponent).   I haven’t seen him much since we graduated, but he has been kicking butt over in Pierce County as a deputy prosecutor handling major felonies.   And by “major” I mean murder, robberies and rapes etc.   When lawyers get promoted into such positions of doing major felonies, they often get rusty on the work of District Court.  But McCann has kept active in misdemeanor work by working as a judge pro-tem in courts such as the Olympia and Federal Way municipal courts.

So anyway those are my words of support.  But also from a bloggers point of view you have to admit that McCann has a pretty impressive internet presence.  For example, look at his Facebook Fan Site.  McCann is a political newcomer, and yet already he has more FB fans (506) than Supreme Court incumbant Jim Johnson (397) and Supreme Court candidate Charlie Wiggins (327).   The only judicial candidate that seems to have more FB supporters is Justice Sanders.

For those of you interested in Facebook fan sites for local candidates in Eastern Washington, check out the sites for Tom Brown, Dennis Morgan, Rick Weber.   Show your support!  Also, I have blogged in the past about the Spokane Prosecutors race.  More on that next week.

An interesting judicial race is taking shape in Stevens County.  Judge Gina Tveit is defending the position of District Court Judge, to which she was appointed last year by the county commissioners.  (Her campaign site is here.) Challenging the incumbent is Spokane criminal defense lawyer Ronnie Rae who bought a home in the Loon Lake area in 2006. Driving through the county, you can see Gina Tveit signs up, but I didn’t see any for Ronnie Rae yet.  Ronnie Rae has been practicing law for 6 years and is just 32 years old (I have blogged about young candidates in the past here).  The only precedent I could find in Eastern Washington for a judicial candidate so young was 33-year-old John O. Cooney, who beat Mark Laiminger to become a Spokane District Court Judge.  But Cooney had name recognition – has dad was also named John Cooney and he was a judge too.

It seems like in judicial elections the race frequently comes down to name.  In 1990 the Chief Justice Keith Callow of Washington State, a widely respected judge who drew little controversy, was thrown off the bench by voters who chose instead a 39-year-old Charles Johnson who had never been an elected judge and who did not campaign.   Political analysts concluded that voters did not know either candidate and so they picked the one with a familiar-sounding name.  Then in 1998, some knucklehead named “Jim Foley” ran for Supreme Court and boasted of having the advantage of a name voters might mistake for Tom Foley, a former congressman and speaker of the House.  Foley beat an incumbent justice in the primary, but lost to Faith Ireland.  Ireland herself changed her name to “Ireland” from Enyeart a few years prior because it would be “easier” for people.

Let’s wait and see what happens with this judicial race in Stevens County.  Tveit is pretty popular in Stevens County, it seems like Rae will have one heck of a hill to climb.

For more on other judicial races see here.