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Nothing illegal about labor email, Sells says investigate leadership

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No surprise really. Josh at Publicola reported this earlier this afternoon. From a statement Josh quotes from the Washington State Patrol:

Washington State Patrol detectives, after consulting with the Thurston County Prosecutor’s office, have determined that the e-mail sent to legislative leaders last week from an employee of the Washington State Labor Council did not constitute criminal conduct.

—snip—

“We looked carefully at the e-mail and at the law,” said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “We could not find a specific criminal statute that was violated.”

Readers will recall that legislative leadership and the governor used the flimsy controversy to kill the worker privacy bill this session.

Josh has since updated his post with quotes from Rep. Mike Sells.

Rep. Mike Sells (D-38, Everett, Marysville), the sponsor of the doomed bill says: “Why am I not surprised? There was no ‘there’ there.”

Sells says, “Now there should be an investigation into how this decision [the decision by Democratic leadership to turn over the WSLC email to the state patrol] was made. Was it a ploy to get rid of the bill?”

Sells has a point. The state patrol basically dismissed the phoney-baloney accusation out of hand.

It certainly appears Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown attempted to use the state patrol to further their own political goals, namely killing the bill. Talk about trying to criminalize politics. The righties, after all, have been warning us for years about a one-party state. Throw in the relative lack of news reporting compared to years past and it looks like a certain set of leaders has grown a wee bit too big for their britches. What, did they figure we wouldn’t care, even if we’re not labor folks?

Again, I’ll use italics to attempt to make the point: they called the cops on the state labor council over a strategy email that also went to a few legislators. Unwise? Sure. Unkind? Maybe. Illegal? Nope, and anyone with common sense immediately saw that.

I’ll just let all this digest a bit before I start in with the obscenities again, I’m going out to purchase an obscenity thesaurus.

UPDATE–5:15 PM– I spoke with someone at the WSLC, and it sure sounds like sending the email to a few legislators was an honest mistake. Obviously that’s almost impossible to prove short of some kind of forensic analysis of the computer involved, and even that wouldn’t show intent, but golly gee. (Notice I am still not swearing.)

Sorry to get all technical, but anyone else have what in technology circles is known as “groups of email addresses for different purposes?” Can’t say for sure that’s exactly what happened, but it sounds plausible.

Comments

  2. 2

    But, but, but, Mr. Cynical said the email was a most egregious act, a criminal act, in fact. So, how could the Thurston County Prosecutor get this so wrong?

  4. 4

    It’s the Republicans’ fault that Washington is a one-party state. It was their responsibility to provide a viable second party, and they failed miserably to do so.

  5. 5

    This bill doesn’t directly affect me, because I don’t work. When I think about all the crap that people have to put up with to work for $10 or $12 an hour, I lose all interest in working. You have to pay for your own education and training. You have to submit applications and go to job interviews. You have to answer stupid and demeaning questions, and pee in a jar. You have to read and comprehend a 100-page employee manual. You have to take orders from idiots and take the blame for their mistakes. You have to work off the clock. You’re treated worse than a dog. And you have to pay 3 times the taxes that rich slobs pay on their capital gains and dividends, and — get this — people who inherit a million bucks don’t pay any taxes at all! Why the fuck would anyone want a job under a system like this? Not me. I don’t work.

  6. 6

    If somebody wants me to listen to their anti-union, pro-God, pro-Republican diatribe, I’ll be happy to do so for $250 an hour. If interested, call 1-900-ROG-EARS; all proceeds go to the Help Roger Rabbit Live Like A Republican Fund.

  7. 7

    In answer to the email question: Yes, certainly, you can group individuals under any number of different headings for transmittal of different documents and comments to be people for whom particular items are relevant.

  8. 8

    Your DEMOCRAT and INCOMPETENT Thurston County Prosecutor Ed Holm. This was in the LEFTIST Olympian:

    Prosecutor must accept responsibility
    • Published November 26, 2006

    Thurston County Prosecutor Ed Holm must stop blaming others for his shortcomings.

    A Mason County jury has awarded three deputy prosecutors $1.52 million in damages for their claims of discrimination and retaliation in Holm’s office. In a weak statement of defense after the stunning verdict last week, Holm noted that he was not a defendant in the case, that the female attorneys’ filed suit against the county.

    What a lame statement.

    The allegations of discrimination and retaliation didn’t involve the sheriff’s office or the county clerk, the assessor or treasurer or any other office of county government. This case was centered entirely on Ed Holm and his actions, his managers and the manner in which Holm administered his office.

    In a feeble attempt to shift blame from himself to the county, Holm said, “I have had no control over this case for six years.” That may be true, but as an independently elected county official, Holm certainly had control over the office where the discrimination and retaliation occurred according to the jury’s verdict.

    The $1.52 million judgment is an indictment of Holm and his leadership abilities. The question Thurston County residents must ask themselves is whether things have improved in the prosecutor’s office since these incidents took place. Has Holm created a nonhostile, professional working environment free of harassment and bias, sexual innuendo and inappropriate behavior?

    It’s a legitimate question given the recent arrest of another deputy prosecuting attorney, William J. Halstead, at a Seattle Seahawks game. Halstead and another employee in the prosecutor’s office were caught in a stall in a woman’s restroom during a football game at Qwest field. King County sheriff deputies were responding to calls from employees that two people were having sex in a stall.

    Halstead was arrested on suspicion of trespassing – being in the women’s restroom – and obstructing a law enforcement officer. The woman Halstead was with, an administrative assistant in the prosecutor’s office, was not arrested. The actions of the two employees raise questions about the kind of environment Holm has created in his office.

    It’s also worth reminding the county prosecutor that the original complaint filed by the three women in Thurston County in August 2001 alleged that Holm used lewd language – such as references to the size of some women’s breasts, made off-color jokes and used sexual bias in giving out plum assignments or pay. The final complaint, refiled in Mason County in 2004, named Thurston County as a defendant, but centered on actions made in Holm’s office by Holm and his subordinates. The county was named as defendant likely because that’s where the money is.

    The jury verdict supports an earlier investigation of Holm’s leadership. Marcia Ruskin, an attorney and consultant, was hired by Thurston County commissioners to investigate the claims by the three deputy prosecutors. She found no discrimination or retaliation but said, “I think it is self-evident that Holm is not a particularly strong manager.”

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