King County Councilman Bob Ferguson is not running for County Prosecutor, and that means (a birdy tells me) Bill Sherman definitely is.
Sherman a longtime deputy prosecutor and a former aide to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, was one of the most pleasant surprises coming out of last year’s hotly contested 43rd Legislative District race. But don’t listen to me heap praise on Sherman, read what the Seattle Times had to say in endorsing his candidacy:
Sherman is a bright new entrant to elective politics who brings a very promising résumé and set of skills.
[…] Sherman has the right mix of temperament, attitude and résumé.
Sherman was an aide to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during the Clinton presidency, so he comes with political savvy and awareness of public-policy issues.
Sherman is currently a deputy prosecutor for King County who focuses on domestic violence, something that always can use extra awareness and voice in Olympia.
Sherman is a solid environmentalist with endorsements from Washington Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.
He is also supported by Allied Arts of Seattle, and is an advocate for improved public education.
His law-and-order job helped draw support from former Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran, who describes Sherman as a pragmatist and common-sense Democrat best qualified to work with Democrats, Republicans and suburbanites in Olympia.
[…] Sherman is the best all-around candidate. He is a very strong newcomer who will represent the district admirably.
I don’t mean it as a knock against Ferguson, but the Democrats ended up with a better candidate in Sherman. He’s an experienced prosecutor, who, well, is simply much more qualified for the job. And while he doesn’t have Ferguson’s winning track record at the polls, he came from nowhere to be surprisingly competitive in the 43rd LD race.
Sherman will also match up better in the general, pitting his years in the courtroom against Acting Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s years as an administrator. This’ll be a great race.
UPDATE:
Bill Sherman has confirmed via email:
I’ve decided to run, and will file tomorrow afternoon. I decided to run because I can bring the perspective of a front-line trial prosecutor, working with victims and offenders every day. The Prosecutor’s office needs to focus on protecting the most vulnerable among us; on leading the way in dealing with criminals with severe mental health problems, and stopping the cycle of crime by probationary offenders. I’m excited to lead that effort, and it starts tomorrow.
Sherman has also confirmed that he will be a guest on “The David Goldstein Show“, Sunday night on Newsradio 710-KIRO.
Bob Ferguson did a wonderful job of completing 39.5 CLE credits in just six days. And went ahead and paid his dues to become an active member of the State Bar once again (yes, it is reflected on the WSBA website). You have to give the fellow a lot of credit for doing this, and even for paying the extra dues to be active, when he had doubtless decided not to run for prosecutor after all.
King County and the Prosecutor’s Office will be lucky to have Sherman at the helm. He is the type of leader that the public yearns for: wise, personable and grounded. He has my vote.
Bill Sherman will probably run a more effective campaign than Keith Scully. The top three issues for Scully in running for King County Prosecuting Attorney are (from his recently established official campaign website):
1. Death Penalty: “Keith [Scully] is uncomfortable with the death penalty.”
2. Diversity: Keith Scully will continue “diversity” in hiring staff for the prosecutor’s office, “not only of races and genders, but also of political beliefs and lifestyle”.
3. Labor: Keith Scully “supports 100% the rights of every employee to unionize” in the prosecuting attorney’s office.
http://keithscully.com/issues.html
Bill Sherman certainly understands domestic violence, and won’t tolerate things like what Joe Szwaja did to his girlfriend in Madison, Wisconsin. A similar act committed here in King County should merit 3rd degree assault, a Class C Felony.
Bill Sherman really should address the charging delay problem in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office. The vast majority of people who are arrested in King County — except for those charged with the most serious felonies — are released almost immediately, and formal criminal charges are not filed until several weeks to several months later.
Dan Satterberg was Maleng’s chief of staff for 17 years, and is presumably responsible for just about any policy or practice that went on in that office. Amazingly, he has been quoted in the media in recent days that he wants to improve the charging delay situation!
Right now, if someone is charged with anything other than a serious violent crime in King County jurisdiction (all felonies and the misdemeanors enforced by the Sheriff or State Patrol), they are released very soon after being arrested (assuming they are even arrested). They will be brought before a King County District Judge the following day to set bail and to set a second appearance date within three court days after that. But the King County Prosecuting Attorney won’t file formal charges at that point, and the first court file will be closed right before the second appearance date. If the arrestee has posted bail, they get it back. If they paid for a bail bond, they paid the premium to avoid just a couple of days in jail. If they are still in jail, they get release.
If someone is not arrested and taken into custody, then nothing happens for quite a while. They are simply told that the case is “under investigation”. So the State Patrol and King County Sheriff, for example, will not actually write tickets to drunk drivers. They will get the BAC printout with breath test results and allowed to go home. If they are driving while suspended, basically nothing happens right away. Same thing for practically every misdemeanor where someone is basically caught in the act — if they don’t get arrested and hauled to jail (for the procedure in the paragraph above), nothing happens to them right away — certainly no citation, and at best being told their case is “under investigation” and that they might here from the court in many weeks.
Nonviolent felonies, including drug offenses, tend to have the same result. People will be arrested for investigation, and then released without filing formal charges.
Actual formal charges tend not to be filed for a minimum of six weeks in any event, and can be six months or more later in drug cases. At that point in time (however long it might be), misdemeanor offenders get a notice in the mail from the relevant district court and appear (or not) for an arraignment date. Many times, these folks simply ignore the arraignment notices, or might not get them at all because they have moved or the district court computer system has the wrong address for them. In felony cases, an information is filed, along with bail (or personal recognizance) generally being set ex-parte (and probable cause determined) by the superior court judge with that duty. They have to send out the Sheriff to arrest people for whom bail has been ordered, and will mail notices to appear in court to people for whom PR release has been ordered. Again, in these cases, even the PR folks often have moved or ignore notices, and it is often necessary to have the sheriff go out and arrest them.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR ALL THIS DELAY BY THE KING COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY.
In almost every other jurisdiction in this state, people arrested for drunk driving are given a citation and required to appear in court for arraignment the next business day after being stopped. The prosecuting authorities are prepared to proceed with the charges and bring them to trial within the required 90 day period. If people are taken into custody for any offense almost everywhere else in this state, the prosecutor will proceed with the case. They may be released because they meet bail or get PR’ed, but they aren’t released because of the prosecutor deciding not to file charges right away and sitting on their butts for several weeks or months before filing anything. Misdemeanor offenders are given citations, which require them to appear in court in the next two weeks or so, and the prosecutor proceeds with those cases to a timely completion as well.
The people of King County should have a prosecuting attorney who will bring charges promptly once a person is arrested or accused of a crime, and bring them to a timely completion. It is outrageous that the vast majority of cases handled by the county prosecutor at the present time have these inexplicable delays. There is no reason why the office can’t be prepared to bring every case to trial within the 60 to 90 day period allowed under the court rules.
@ 4
So, you’re saying that Bill Sherman is so intolerant of any form of domestic violence he’s willing to bring charges that aren’t adequately supported by the available evidence?
Don Joe @ 6
Looks like there was sufficient evidence against Joe Szwaja to support a 3rd degree assault charge, had Washington law applied. He admitted to the police that he had thrown a plate at his girlfriend. That evidence is admissible, assuming the police did not violate his constitutional rights (i.e. the need to read Miranda warnings if he was in custody at the time). A plate is considered to be a weapon, when thrown at someone. And his girlfriend was definitely injured — significant cuts and lots of stitches. This case is proper to submit to a jury to determine guilt or innocence through their verdict.
I welcome Bill Sherman’s entry into this race.
I would have to presume that Dan Satterberg was involved in the decision-making process to not charge Lori Sotelo with misconduct in the past election.
Goldy,
Don’t let the truth get in the way of your partisanship. According to the Seattle PI Sherman has been a prosecutor since 2003. That equals 4 years. Presumably he spent some of that time campaigning for the legislature, not in the courtroom as you presume. According to the PI Satterberg has been a prosecutor since 1985. He prosecuted gang violence crimes prior to be becoming Chief of Staff. He presumably assisted and was part of every major decision that Maleng made in the last 17 years, including the decisions that you or others seemed to praise Maleng for just over a week ago on this very blog. So please Goldy tell us how you justify calling Sherman a “long time” prosecutor with “courtroom experience” vs. just an “administrator” in Satterberg? What a joke. Rather than lie in trying to make a “courtroom experience” argument to justify your apparent support for Sherman just admit that you will support him because he has a (D) after his name and not because of his massive 4 years of experience.
Considering the hard swing to the right on a national front with regard to the US Attorneys, and the blind partisanship exhibited by our US Attorney General, particularly with regard to actively persuing a policy of fixing elections and initiating politically motivated prosecutions, I don’t feel that we should discount the qualifications of candidate for prosecuting attorney because he has a ‘D’ after his name. For my money, that may well be an additional qualification.
Not having much experience in dealing with the King County criminal justice system, I found Mr. Pope’s input fascinating.
Please correct me if I’ve misread your post, but it seems to me that the prosecutor’s office routinely used what looks like a loophole to allow them to ignore the Constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial.
Additionally, it seems all too easy for a person charged with a crime to find themselves a fugitive without being aware that there is a problem. After all, charges were apparently dropped and the individual was released.
While I understand that it might be necessary to refrain from charging an individual with a crime before getting all the evidence, I have to assume that there was considerable evidence before the initial arrest.
But my understanding of the purpose of the Constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial is to prevent this sort of thing, with charges dragging on for years, from happening.
In the case of a serious crime, it would be all too easy for an actual perpetrator to simply leave the jurisdiction of the court upon being released. After all, if there are no charges filed against someone, then that person is free to travel anywhere in the world, without restriction.
Is the Prosecutor’s office severely understaffed, or are there procedural problems that are causing the delays?
We’ve been subjected to the loud, long caterwhauling of the BIAW and vaporous blatherings of Stefan Sharkookoo for so long, that Norm Maleng made a singularly glaring mistake by not persuing an action against Lori Sotelo, bringing a stain of partisanship to an otherwise sterling career.
I would not suggest that Bill Sherman would bring an action of that sort because he is a Democrat, but I would suggest that he would probably not be cravenly cowed to not do so, as aRepublican Prosecuting Attorney apparently was.
Dan Satterberg was admitted to the Bar in November 1985 and Bill Sherman was admitted to the Bar in November 1999. Satterberg became Maleng’s chief of staff 17 years ago, so that means he spent just over 4 years in the courtroom. Sherman has spent the last four years in the courtroom at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and presumably practiced law in some way or another during the three to four years after being admitted and before being hired by the prosecutor’s office.
Please note that Norm Maleng ran for state Attorney General in 1992, and was considered to be a shoe-in at the outset. He planned his campaign a couple of years in advance, and presumably chose Satterberg as his second-in-command, because he wanted Satterberg to succeed him in January 1993, after he was elected and sworn in as Attorney General.
As it was, of course, Christine Gregoire surprised almost everyone by beating Maleng for Attorney General in November 1992.
So having Satterberg’s lengthy experience is by no means necessary to become King County Prosecuting Attorney. Maleng was grooming Satterberg to take over the office in January 1993, when he would have been admitted to the Bar for only seven years, and two months.
If Sherman is elected this November, he will be sworn in later that month, after the election results are certified. At that point, he will have just over 8 years experience in the practice of law — somewhat more than Satterberg would have had if Maleng had defeated Gregoire back in 1992.
Fuckwad @10,
I’ve never said anything nasty about Satterberg. But this is a Democratic County, and given two qualified candidates, a Democrat should win. That Democrat is Bill Sherman.
First of all, Pope, just days ago on the PI website in a blog post you argued that we should have someone with experience as the next elected prosecutor. You even listed Satterberg’s experience compared to Ferguson’s and Sherman’s. So which is it Pope or do you just change opinions depending on which blog you are writing on?
And Goldy, your response is pitiful. I rebut your half-assed post with facts and all you can do is call me a fuckwad? In the words of many an experienced trial attorney (excluding of course Sherman or Pope for that matter) I rest my case.
Yours truly,
Fuckwad
@ 7
Assault and/or battery, depending on the terminology you want to use, are pretty universal phenomena. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, one would tend to think that laws defining the crimes and specifying the punishments would be very similar from state to state.
The accounts of the incident in question differ in a number of material details, Szwaja was never even charged with the Wisconsin equivalent of 3rd degree assault, and the misdemeanor with which he was charged at booking was dismissed persuant to prosecutorial discretion.
So, which is the more probable explanation for what we do, in fact, know? Is Wisconsin’s law substantially different from Washington’s law, or did some reporters, in their zeal to come up with some salacious past, manage to screw up a detail or two in their accounts?
John Barelli @ 12
“Gathering more evidence” isn’t the reason for this. The office is just plain lazy, and doesn’t want to be hamstrung by the requirement under the court rules to bring cases to trial within 60 or 90 days of arraignment. So they simply delay filing formal charges, which makes the arraignment happen at some point in the future to start the clock running.
For example, in drunk driving cases, ALL of the evidence is gathered by the arresting officer on the day (or more commonly, NIGHT) of the arrest. The officer observes things, arrests the person, gives the breath test, prints the BAC results out, and writes the report from their notes. There is absolutely no need to gather more evidence after this is done.
In almost all other counties, the deputy sheriff or state trooper would issue a citation, and the defendant would have to appear in court the next day. The case would then have to be tried by the prosecutor within 90 days of this arraignment (unless the defendant, of course, asks for more time — which is actually pretty common).
In King County, the prosecuting attorney basically does not allow the deputy sheriff or state trooper to issue a citation to the drunk driver. Instead, the file is forwarded to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, where it sits around in the “filing unit” for at least two months, if not longer. Finally, when the staff gets a “round tuit”, some deputy prosecutor spends a few minutes looking at the issue, and has the paralegal print up a “complaint” (misdemeanor charging document signed by prosecutor), which is signed and sent to district court for filing. Assuming the court has the correct address for the driver, the court sends them a notice to appear in court for arraignment, about two weeks after the prosecutor sends the charging papers to the court.
Drunk driving cases are not the only ones like this. Practically all misdemeanor cases are handled this same way. And probably half or more of felonies — the vast majority of non-violent and drug offenses. Only serious felonies — especially violent crimes — end up with “expedited charging” (which means charging someone after arrest, instead of releasing them with no charges filed).
If Bill Sherman can convince enough independent minded voters that Dan Satterberg is responsible for this system, and that Sherman can do a better job and charge offenders immediately after their arrest or citation, then he will be elected our next prosecutor. Probably at least 40% of the folks would vote Democrat no matter what — even if I happened to be the nominee! So Sherman doesn’t have to sell his message to a lot of folks in order to win — just those Democrats who might vote for a well-qualified Republican and a least a few percent of truly independent voters.
@16 If you attack Richard Pope without refuting his discussion of relative qualifications, you richly deserve Goldy’s epithet. Richard is at best, a problematic person, but he does display acuity and well reasoned arguements at various times. You simply have not addressed what Richard posted.
And, for that matter, for you to criticise Goldy for partisanship is both foolish and ill informed. . .Goldy is professedly partisan. Duh.
Bill Sherman is bright, personable and competent. He has, from my point of view, the added attraction of being a Democrat.
I have no great desire to heap abuse on Dan Satterberg, and I really don’t feel a strong desire to slam a man as well respected as Norm Maleng, but, well reasoned and well thought out criticisms can be levelled against some long standing practices of the King County Prosecutor’s office, and Mr. Satterberg will have to bear some of the burden of those criticisms. Bill Sherman can provide us with a new direction for this office.
My perception is, that the delay in charging in King County, has more to do with with conducting ‘justice’ in a miz pocha or entrez-nous fashion, than placing emphasis on an expeditious prosecution. There is prosecutorial discretion allowed for under the law, but there is also the opportunity for the appearance of ‘politicking’ in the manner in which charging is conducted.
Here is something interesting about Dan Satterberg. Look at the e-mail address that he is using for his campaign, based upon what he put on his candidacy filing papers with King County Elections:
normansatterberg@comcast.net
http://www.metrokc.gov/electio.....038;iPid=0
Norman Satterberg? His legal name is Daniel Todd Satterberg. According to Stefan’s nifty voter database, there is no registered voter in Washington named Norman Satterberg. It is always possible that Dan has a minor son named Norman — which happened the full legal first name of his long-time boss. But using your minor child’s e-mail address on a public document when filing for public office, especially when the e-mail address is going to be published on the web?
Either that, or Dan is using the name “Norman” in his e-mail address to remind voters that he will be just as great as Norm Maleng.
Tree Frog Farmer @ 20
It certainly is a lot easier for cases to “disappear” when law enforcement officers are not allowed to file misdemeanor citations directly with the court. If that were the case, it would be pretty obvious that the county prosecutor was deciding not to proceed with the case. But if the police file is sent to the “charging unit”, and nothing ever gets sent to court for filing by the county prosecutor, the prosecutor’s lack of action is not obvious or even easily detectible.
Similar things happen in felony arrests. They do result in a district court case number for the preliminary appearance. But most of these district court cases terminate without any further ado. So it isn’t quite so easy to determine whether or not the prosecutor has decided to follow through with felony charges, misdemeanor charges, or no charges at all on a felony arrest.
Mr. Pope
Thanks for the input. It does seem as if the King County Prosecutor’s office has more than its share of procedural problems. I imagine that a good defense lawyer could make most of those delayed prosecutions go away, as I really doubt that the Prosecutor would like to have to answer for them in front of a judge.
(Of course you realize that if you keep saying nice things about Democrats, Mr. Esser is going to take away your official Republican Party decoder ring.)
Seriously, while I understand Goldy’s position, I really think that the County Prosecutor should be a non-partisan office. Unfortunately, in the rather highly charged political atmosphere we have these days, that opinion will probably get me pilloried from both sides.
Having a Prosecutor that is beholden to either party seems like a bad idea, and allows a perception of partisanship in prosecution.
But if the parties are going to be involved, then I’ve got to go with Goldy and say that if the candidates are both qualified for the office, then the Democrat will get the nod from me.
It sounds as if Mr. Sherman is a well qualified candidate, and also like the Prosecutor’s office could use someone coming in and shaking things up a bit.
1) To address Richard Pope’s comment above, Dan Satterberg’s wife’s name is Linda Norman. (see my nifty voter database) That probably explains the email address.
2) To address Goldy’s citation of the Seattle Times endorsement of Bill Sherman, all I can say is this:
Thanks for the “update” Goldy. I look forward to hearing Bill on the Ray-Dee-Oh.
Richard, ‘Whois’ gives no information about ‘Normansatterberg@comcast.net’. Google only refers back to Dan
Satterberg.
And, of course, by extension, anything stated by Stefan Sharkanski. . . . .
Oops, my bad. The correct spelling for Mr. Sharansky should read Sharkookoo.
Stefan @ 24
The point Goldy made back on October 23, 2006 was that Seattle Times endorsements were becoming irrelevant to King County voters. Goldy pointed to their glowing endorsement of Mike McGavick — who went on to win 30.20% of the King County vote.
During my political career, I have been honored by the voters to be advanced from the primary ballot to the November general election ballot five times. In each of those elections, the Seattle Times made endorsements — for my opponent every single time. When the Seattle Times editorial board talked about myself, they did so in very disparaging terms. Yet, I have always gotten quite a bit better than 30.20% in each of my general election races — despite not having anything approaching the campaign resources that were available to McGavick last fall.
So Goldy was correct in saying that Seattle Times election endorsements really aren’t very important in influencing voters.
And it is appropriate for Goldy to quote from the September 2006 Seattle Times endorsement of Bill Sherman. It is pretty clear that the Seattle Times will be endorsing Dan Satterberg come the November general election. So, in that context, it is appropriate to quote the really nice things the Seattle Times said about Sherman in the past, when he was not running against their preferred Republican candidate.
This is interesting — according to Bill Sherman’s last PDC report filed for his 2006 state legislature race (where he was eliminated in the September primary), he raised a total of $114,451.28 through October 30, 2006 and spent a total of $151,060.17 through that same date. This left Sherman with cash on hand of negative $36,608.89 at the end of the campaign.
Sherman told the Seattle Times that this reported contained an error. And it probably does, since none of this prior reports showed negative cash on hand, and the starting figures on his last report are significantly different than the ending figures on the report for the period immediately prior. Hopefully, Sherman does not have a Bob Ferguson problem developing here.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....on08m.html
God I about spit out my coffee. Listening to this jerk Pope-A-Dope talk about his “political career” is too fucking funny. Dickie – You don’t have a political career you fucking nutjob. You’ve been defeated every time you run – whether it’s for dog catcher or port commissioner. NOBODY is stoooopid enough to let you get a job sucking off the government tit. You know, the one you say is too big?
And who here is stoooopid enough to care about your legal analysis of this situation? Your own peers in the legal profession certainly don’t think much of you. And then there’s the problems you’ve had meeting deadlines and representing your clients effectively.
Man you must live in a very alternative universe from the one the rest of us visit.
Somebody questioned whether the decision not to file charges immediately is a speedy trial violation. The answer is no, because no charges were actually filed. Speedy trial rules only apply when a case is actually filed. So that’s not an issue.
Richard’s actually got a lot of valid points on this issue. The problem is NOT that King County is understaffed — it’s a policy issue. Their caseloads are far lower than other nearby jurisdictions…namely, Pierce County.
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/.....feldiv.htm
Felony caseloads are high in comparison to other large counties in Washington State. This office prosecutes over 6000 felony cases each year and was responsible for 15% of the felony convictions statewide in 2003. By way of comparison, King County, with 22% of the felony convictions statewide, has nearly 3 times the number of deputies assigned to prosecute felony crimes as Pierce County.
That someone would have been me, and I noted that it was a loophole.
But I also questioned whether a decent defense attorney could use the delay as a reason to either get the case dismissed or as a reason for appeal. Prosecutors have a certain amount of discretionary ability when actually filing charges, but a delay of months without any actual evidence gathering would seem, to a layman such as myself, to be grounds for an appeal on Constitutional grounds.
A defendant with the ability to hire a good defense attorney may well be able to use the threat of such an appeal to get the prosecutor to either reduce the charges or simply have them dropped.
Additionally, the idea of a speedy trial is not only to prevent a defendant from spending years in jail without a trial. Memories blur over time, records are misplaced, evidence is lost or mishandled.
All of these together would be fodder for any decent defense attorney.
Many people claim that Democrats are “soft on crime” and somehow want to let violent offenders roam our streets. Not so. We want the justice system to work the way it’s supposed to work. If someone does the crime, we’ve got no issue with them doing the time.
(We’d also like the punishment to actually address the underlying cause for the crime and work in a way that reduces the likelihood of re-offending, but that is a topic for another day.)
We do tend to take issue with the idea that if you’re poor or a minority or in a currently unpopular group, you do the time, but if you’re rich or popular, the laws don’t apply to you.
While the current news spectacle is a glaring example of that, there are smaller ones that happen every day. We have no way of knowing how often charges are dropped because a defendant has the means to bring in a good defense lawyer, while a regular working class person would simply end up in jail.
To some degree, that will happen regardless of the delays in the system, but those delays are likely to make the situation worse.
“Hello, Muddah. Hello, Faddah!” Why should this clown who writes stupid song parodies be entrusted with an important job like this? I am outraged!
What’s that? It’s Bill…. Not Alan?
…nevermind….
Stefan is a coward.
Stefan bans people from his blog
for telling the truth. If he was
right, he could defend himself,
not just ban people who prove him
to be a partisan hack doing the
bidding of Rove, and the real
election fraud felons. The GOP.
COWARD!!!!
Stefan. Rossi lost. Deal with it.
Stefan, Jeb Bush, and Katherine
Harris took tens of thousands of
legitimate voters, many of them
vets off the rolls, so they could
not vote in 2000.
Stefan, is this a crime? Why were
they not prosecuted?
Is this the loyal Bushie effect?
Election Fraud, and caging lists
are fine, as long as Republicans
are doing the crimes Stefan?
Bax given Stefan Sharkookoo’s penchant for looneytunes crusades about nonexistent voter fraud, and the truly vile, illegal bent placed upon the US Attorney’s office by the present criminal cabal in Washington,DC, I fear that hacks, fools and knaves like Sharansky,Esser, and Vance will attempt to suborn the excess staffing of the KC Prosecutor’s office into a campaign of illicit harrassment of Democratic candidates, and their voting base.
Bax @ 31
Excellent point. I will assume Pierce County may have a significantly higher crime rate, as King County has more than twice the population — 2.38 times as much per 2006 census estimates. Yet in absolute numbers of felony convictions, Pierce County has about 2/3 the number for King County — 15% of the statewide total, versus 22% of the statewide total in King County.
On the other hand, King County has 28.6% of the statewide population, but only 22% of the felony convictions. Granted, Pierce County might be a felony hotspot. But take Pierce County’s population and convictions out of the picture, and King County has 32.5% of the non-Pierce County population, but only about 28.6% of the non-Pierce County convictions.
Is King County really such a low crime rate county, that our felony rate per capita is lower than the statewide average, even when high crime rate Pierce County is deducted from the picture?
Or is the real problem that Norm Maleng and Dan Satterberg simply filed a much lower number of felony cases relative to the number of alleged felonies investigated and/or arrested by law enforcement? This certainly cannot be blamed on staffing problems, since Pierce County felony prosecutors evidently handle twice as many cases per lawyer as do King County felony prosecutors.
John Barelli (read R=Stupid @ 30),
I think you are correct about R=Stupid being a righty troll. Notice how R=Stupid attacks me with even greater vigor when I offer a reasoned critical analysis of problems of a Republican public official?
Richard@37 I would be the last person to advise ytou not to hew your own course. . .but I’ve already noted that you are well on your way toward emulating The Tinker of Tamlyn,unloved by heaven, and rejected by hell. . .
As to “Stupid” whatever it is, it isn’t very persuasive in any case. . .
@1 Looks like Richard Pope isn’t going to have Bob Ferguson to kick around. Too bad for Richard.
@1 So how is that different from cramming for the bar?
Ferguson is more qualified to be King County prosecutor than Monica Goodling is to hire assistant U.S. attorneys.
One positive thing to come out of all this is that, one way or another, Satterberg won’t be sitting on the King County canvassing board anymore. But we need to elect a Democrat to this job so the King County prosecutor’s office stops coddling voting suppression criminals like Lori Sotelo.
We need a Democrat like Sherman. This county has had a soft-on-crime Republican long enough!
Bush Harbors Known Terrorist
Why is Luis Posado Carriles loose in Miami? This slimeball bombed an airliner full of kids. Bush should order him arrested and extradited to one of the countries where he’s wanted for mass murder.
Pope-a-Dope I don’t care who you support or what you believe. I merely want to point out that you are in my Constitutionally – proected opinion a complete and total fucking idiot.
I repeat – YOU HAVE NO POLITICAL CAREER – YOU LOST. Don’t you get it?
Bill Sherman would bring an even and magnanimous temperament to the prosecutor’s office that would honor and perpetuate the legacy of Norm Maleng.
44 It seems we’re more concerned now with enforcing the law that says a US citizen can’t smoke a Cuban cigar, even outside the United States.
41 You might be right, but at the moment I think I’d be perfectly happy for him to stay on the County Council, than to bail out of that to run for prosecutor and be voted down or disqualified on a technicality.
Norm Maleng forged what is, by any standard, one of the best prosecutor’s offices in the country. Satterberg is far and away more qualified to continue this legacy. Sherman is a great guy, but he’s been with the office barely more than 3 years, and spent one year of that time out of the office campaigning for another political position. He has never even tried a homicide case.
@19 Tree Frog Farmer
Thanks for essentially calling me a Fuckwad as well. You are the one who doesn’t get it. In his post Richard Pope argues that Satterberg had less experience in 1993 than Sherman does now. In making his argument Pope assumes that Satterberg would have taken over for Maleng had Maleng been elected Attorney General in 1992. How Pope reaches this conclusion I do not know but apparently he can read Maleng’s mind from 1993. Better yet he can apparently read the mind of the County Council from 1993. But even if you accept Pope’s assumption, my point was that Pope made the opposite point on a Seattle PI blog just days ago. Here is his entry.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....eID=318613
“Posted by Richard Pope at 6/5/07 9:33 p.m.
It would be nice to have someone with EXPERIENCE to be our next King County Prosecuting Attorney. Dan Satterberg has practiced law for 21 years. Keith Scully has practiced law for 8 years. Bill Sherman has practiced law for 7 years. Bob Ferguson practiced law for only 6 years before going into inactive status. Which candidate is best qualified to lead an office with over 250 attorneys?”
So Tree Frog, unless you want to take on the task of explaining how Pope justifies two opposite positions on the same issue, I would keep my mouth shut.
And when it comes to Goldy, of course he is a partisan, but like every partisan hack, Goldy tried to hide his bias in fact claiming Sherman was a “longtime prosecutor.” He either lied or didn’t know the facts before opening his mouth. Just because I refuted his assertions he called me a fuckwad and you agreed. When all else fails, resort to name calling.
Oh and by the way Pope, before you critisize Satterberg for the slow filing of the King County Prosecutor’s Office, you might want to know that Sherman has been a filing deputy for close to two of his four years in the office. So if you want cases filed more quickly, talk to him.
Sherman has been in the KCPAO for 4 years. As the previous poster pointed out, a year and a half of that time was spent reading police reports and filing cases–not in the courtroom. Another 6 – 9 months was spent on a leave of absence running for the legislature. I can probably count the number of felony trials he’s done on one hand. Experienced prosecutor? I guess that depends on how you define experience.
Sherman should have won the 43rd. He is very smart, he’s fair, he’s incredibly likable, he’s progressive, he does the right the thing, he knows the job, he’s a really good guy and he will have a lot of support – including mine.
Sherman is currently on his very first felony trial rotation. He’s been trying felonies for less than a year. Beyond that, the job of the elected King County Prosecutor is NOT to try cases. Rather, such person needs the experience and temperment to run an office of 500+ lawyers and professional staff, to engender trust among those in the community, and to assess the efficacy of moving forward in the most serious of cases. This requires someone who has both tried cases and has made broader policy decisions regarding cases. Satterberg has done both.
Moreover, some would argue that the civil division of the prosecutor’s office is just as important as the criminal division. Satterberg has made decisions and been involved with both divisions. Sherman has not.
Sherman has not ever sat in on a death-penalty decision.
Sherman has not ever talked to the family of a murder victim.
Sherman has not ever had to make a policy decision.
Sherman has not ever supervised another lawyer.
Sherman does not have the experience of 80% of the lawyers he would supervise.
Sherman is a nice guy who will be a wonderful politician someday. Perhaps he will be a senator or a governor, but he’s not currently qualified to run a professional, non-political office. Period.
“Who is most qualified to fill this position?” That is the sole question that should be asked. Please leave the partisan politics out of it.
Keith Scully is a joke. I can’t say it any other way. Ask any prosecutor that worked with Mr. Scully during his time in the King County Prosecutor’s office and they will say the same thing. He lacked judgment, lacked common sense, and lacked compassion. His failures in that office were legendary.
Bill Sherman is a fine man and a decent person. Mr. Sherman may one day make a suitable King County Prosecutor, but not by Nov. 2007. His experience in dealing with criminal cases is extremely limited. He has never handled a homicide case and has never dealt with any sexual abuse cases. He has never supervised any attorneys or staff while at the office and is simply unqualified to manage one of the largest metropolitan prosecutor’s offices in the country. Sorry.
Dan Satterberg is the most qualified candidate, and it’s not even close. Mr. Satterberg has been personally involved in every major decision made by the King County Prosecutor’s office over the last 17 years. It could be argued that he has had more influence on this office then Norm himself. I can think of no other person who would best carry on Norm’s legacy.
It’s easy to ferret those writers who actually have some awareness of the prosecutors office from those who have never set foot inside it yet presume sufficient knowledge to call its employees things like “lazy” and “soft on crime”. I realize that facts are a terrible thing to introduce to ill-informed opinions, but with all due respect, you latter folks are are doing a grave disservice to yourselves and this County in the name of partisanship.
When Mark Maleng said at his father’s memorial service that Norm often bragged of being part of the “best metropolitan prosecutor’s office in the land”, he was not repeating a platitude, he was stating a fact. The number of hours these public servants put in every week to represent not only victims, but you as citizens of King County, is humbling. Even Bill Sherman, who trumpeted his “being in a Domestic Violence Trial” as supposed evidence of his weight in the office could potentially lay claim to that fact. So, I’d imagine, might Mr. Scully (although one wonders how an aspiring “prosecuting attorney” could spend any more than minutes a day thinking and preparing for even the simplest of trials with which he was entrusted and still lose as many as he did).
I am a Democrat, but the thought of any candidate other than Dan Satterberg taking the reins of an office vested with protecting us citizens of King County is far more frightening than being accused of party betrayal. Mr. Sherman seems like a good guy, and will likley make a good politician. And Mr. Scully- well, I suppose he might get a kudo ot two for moxie. But neither comes even close to having the background or experience necessary to lead an office so big and so critical to our collective safety. No matter how many tweaks the King County Prosecutor’s Office may need, only Satterberg has the institutional knowlege and support to both see and accomplish them.
ditto to Tdog & whocaresabout’s comments,
Dan Satterberg is THE most qualified person for the job. He has the respect, the experience, the integrity and the aptitude. It is crucial for the community for the office to run smoothly, without the interruption of partisan politics. Introducing a newcomer with little experience or expertise will cripple an office that functions well under Satterberg’s leadership.