There are rules and “laws” in regards to the way that elected officials and members of the Judiciary are supposed to speak to each other and about each other. Rules of professional conduct that dictate decorum for how these people are supposed to act.
These rules are mostly just words on paper… according to the RPC any Judge that is convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude” like drunk driving, woman beating, child molestation is violating the rules but since most of the prosecutorial, judicial and WSBA governing boards are full of exactly these same kinds of people not much is done
RE: SAU
From “roe, mark”: SAU
To “ericks, mark”Mark,
I have an idea on where to get the money to continue to fund however many slots you can give us in SAU……….
Since 2009 our district court filings have decreased from 10,301….9743…….8510……..6255……..5768. During that time we lost or took positions from our district court unit (to meet our budget cuts), which left them understaffed compared to the public defenders, so we stopped filing DWLS 3, and most marijuana cases to compensate, hence the very large filings numbers drop.
In 2009, with over 10 thousand filings there were 8 full time judges, and one full time commissioner in district court………….and there still are, despite a dramatic decrease in filings to well under 6000.
I opposed filling the commissioner position a few years back because the filings had dropped, but it was filled anyway. The commissioner does essentially all the work in cascade because of the sitting judges health/attendance issues. That judge must retire on Dec 31st of this year……..finally. At that point either close cascade, or when a replacement is elected for the retiring judge, eliminate the commissioner spot. I don’t believe the county can eliminate judicial slots, only the state can. the commissioner spot can be defunded however.
In essence I think the dist ct bench is quite overstaffed, and our sex offense unit is dramatically understaffed. Their judicial overstaffing though is currently almost necessary, because the cascade judge is rarely there, and hasn’t heard a jury trial in some time I believe. The commissioner covers all that work. Whoever gets elected to replace Wisman will presumably show up daily, and work full time……rendering the commissioner unnecessary in my opinion. (one everett dist judge reportedly only works mornings currently as well)
Bottom line: they have around 45% FEWER filings from us……….but the same number of judicial positions. Meanwhile, we are drowning. I cannot pull the people out of district court to reinforce SAU because a number of those positions are grant or state funded to do DUI work.
I would prefer you not forward this, though I have said these things before. I just think this is something you should explore.
By eliminating the commissioner slot when Wisman retires you would not actually be reducing their capacity because Wisman has consistently been unable to work anyway. He is a great man, but also a great argument for mandatory retirement unfortunately………
This is a longer range approach to sustain and fund the help we need desperately NOW
From: Roe, Mark
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 10:07 AM
To: Ericks, Mark
Subject: SAUMark,
I have people in our sex assault unit working til after 9 pm on a regular basis, and still not keeping up. You and I talked a while back about our critical needs there. Were you able to come up with any $ for those 3 positions…..or 2….or even one of them?
M
Mark Roe has never read those rules or possibly believes they don’t apply to him. The question remains as to why Judge Anthony Howard is such a patsy for Mr Roe when Mr Roe would gladly just cut him off at the legs.
Mark Roe is in a little bit of trouble for interfering with Union Negotiations as well but that will just be swept under the rug as well. Mark my words: these corrupt actors stick together like a glob of super glue
