‘I Do Not Trust Muzlims’
Comments by the wife of Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell have raised questions about his office’s impartiality ~ By Deanna Pan
In the months preceding his successful bid for Spokane County prosecutor, Larry Haskell campaigned as a reformer despite his establishment roots.
The longtime former deputy prosecutor touted his integrity and track record of fairness. He distanced himself from his controversial predecessor, Steve Tucker, and publicly embraced criminal justice reforms, like sentencing alternatives and rehabilitation programs for offenders.
“For me, the main effort is of course to increase community safety and promote trust in what we do,” he told the Inlander last fall. “Trust is everything.”
But online comments tinged with religious and racial bias made by his wife, Lesley Haskell, threaten to undermine public trust in the prosecutor’s office, community leaders say. For example, on a Facebook page called “Chicks on the Right,” Lesley Haskell commented on an article about a Muslim mayor in the Netherlands who, after the terrorist attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices, said Muslims who “do not like freedom can pack your bags and leave.”
“I don’t care what he said, I do not trust muzlims [sic] no matter what,” she posted on Jan. 13. “Also, do we know for sure this was correctly translated?”
On another Facebook page called “The Shenanigans of Cupcakes and Friends” — a “place for conservatives. PERIOD! No libturds allowed” — Lesley Haskell replied to a YouTube video in which a white woman steals the microphone from a speaker in a hijab at Texas Muslim Capitol Day and yells from a podium, “I stand against Islam and the false prophet Mohammed! Islam will never dominate the United States and by the grace of God, it will not dominate Texas!”
“Oh my God, I love her!” Haskell wrote on Jan. 30. “That’s exactly what I would do!” read more…
