Over the past few months there has been an orchestrated effort to spread defamatory and libelous information about the editor of the Port Townsend Free Press.
This information is absolutely and unequivocally false.
Some of this information was spread by Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas, who was defeated for reelection November 6. He posted the libelous material following a series of investigative reports by the Port Townsend Free Press about questionable activities during his tenure. Mr. Haas is not alone in this effort to defame and libel the news site’s editor.
We are currently in litigation with one party responsible for disseminating this false and defamatory information, and are engaged in tracking other sources through ISPs, social media profiles and other identifying information. Repeating a libel, under law, is no different than originating a libel, and we will vigorously pursue any and all such activity to the fullest extent of civil and criminal law.
We will not be cowed by these libelous attacks. Thank you to all our readers and volunteers. Our readership continues to grow.We look forward to bringing you more news and opinions about what is happening in our county.As always, we welcome submissions, regardless of viewpoint so long as they are well-written and thoroughly researched.
On May 17, 2018, Jefferson County District Court Judge Jill Landes filed a complaint with the Washington State Bar Association against Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael E. Haas accusing him of bribery and ethics violations. The case was being actively investigated by the Bar Association’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel until, under a state Supreme Court rule, it was put on hold until after the election. Haas lost re-election to challenger James Kennedy.
Kennedy is at the center of Landes’ complaint.
We have reviewed the complaint, Mr. Haas’ response and Judge Landes’ supplementary materials. We sought comment from Judge Landes and Mr. Haas. Judge Landes traded telephone calls with us, but we were unable to speak. Mr. Haas did not respond at all.
We also sought comment from Port Townsend attorney Mindy Walker. She also figures prominently in the complaints and is accused of ethical violations, including fraud upon the court. Judge Landes accuses her of being complicit with Haas. Walker has been elected to replace Judge Landes on the bench. Landes is retiring.
James Kennedy & Christopher Ashcraft
We have been able to speak with two of the central witnesses in the case, Kennedy and Christopher Ashcraft, the Port Townsend City Prosecutor. Both attorneys were at the time of the events in Judge Landes’ complaint employed by the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office under Haas. Ashcraft was then Kennedy’s immediate supervisor. Both men have been interviewed by the Office of Disciplinary Council. They have confirmed to us the central facts alleged by Judge Landes.
They have stated that they resigned from the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office and opposed Haas’ re-election in large part because of what they considered to be Haas’ unethical behavior as Prosecuting Attorney.
The third key witness is Adam Sturdivant, then another prosecutor. He left to be a deputy prosecutor in Snohomish County. He states he has not been been interviewed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
UPDATE: Following publication of this story, Mr. Sturdivant contacted us. He generally confirms the allegations of Judge Landes’ complaint and specifically recalls overhearing Haas instructing Kennedy to sign the order he and Walker had worked out, though, as Haas said to Kennedy, “You won’t like it.” Mr. Sturdivant says he has yet to be interviewed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
We have also reviewed the pertinent video records, more evidence which the Office of Disciplinary Counsel is considering. The videos of two key hearings largely corroborate Judge Landes, though they do not show, as alleged by Landes, Haas huddling with Walker and then instructing Kennedy to engage in the conduct Landes reported to the Bar Association. The videos do show both Kennedy and Ashcraft expressing to the court their concerns with the ethics of the actions Haas instructed them to take and their reasons for refusing to act as the County Prosecutor instructed.
The evidence of Haas huddling with Walker and issuing instructions to Kennedy depends on the testimony of Kennedy, Ashcraft and Sturdivant. And, of course, Walker.
Ethics investigations and complaints are normally kept confidential until resolution. But because Haas is a public official, we were able to obtain the documents from his office, though not those in the files of the Disciplinary Counsel. We did not receive the documents until the day before the election. See our earlier report: Michael Haas Under Investigation, Hiding the Truth from Voters.
What we have obtained in Office of Disciplinary Counsel case 18-00843 can be read at the following link. Some material is redacted as attorney work product. Note that much of the material on the second case covered by Judge Landes’ complaint has been redacted because it concerns a juvenile. To read those documents simply click on these highlighted words: Landes files. (Patience, please. WordPress can be very sluggish.)
Judge Jill Landes
The allegations against Haas concern two cases. One case, State v. Siekaj was a prosecution for drunken driving. Haas represented the defendant as a client of Haas & Ramirez before he became prosecutor. Judge Landes alleges that even after he became prosecutor, Haas continued to act on behalf of Siekaj and remained counsel of record.
Judge Landes claims Haas engaged in the crime of bribery because he used the powers of his public office to benefit an individual from whom he received money. If true, this is a direct and egregious conflict of interest, in addition to possibly being bribery. Judge Landes alleges that Walker was aware of this, and that she knowingly used Haas’ ethical breach to benefit her client, while failing to disclose to the court her knowledge of Haas’ alleged misconduct. Lawyers, under their professional code of conduct, are obligated to report attorney misconduct that comes to their attention.
The complaint logically assumes that Haas was not working for free as private counsel for Siekaj. It assumes he was paid at some time. Landes does not specifically allege that Haas accepted money from Siekaj directly after being sworn in as prosecutor. The amount paid is not stated.
Not mentioned in the complaint, but perhaps investigated by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, was whether Haas continued to receive compensation from his former law firm, in which Walker had become a partner, after he became prosecutor. It is not uncommon for law partnerships to continue to split fees and divide assets for some time after they are dissolved. As a partner in the firm, Walker would likely have known of any payments to Haas after he took office, payments made at a time when she was seeking Haas’ assistance on behalf the firm’s client.
The second case concerns a juvenile. Because much of the material has been redacted, it is difficult to understand exactly what it is about. We had heard of this matter before we knew of Judge Landes’ complaint, but will not disclose the juvenile’s name. It is not much a secret around the courthouse. It concerns a juvenile related to Haas who, as we understand it, assaulted a person with whom Haas had a personal history of conflict. In short, what happened was that Haas ordered the prosecutor assigned to the case to dismiss the charges. The prosecutor, Kennedy, refused. He and his supervisor, Ashcraft, demanded that Haas appoint a special prosecutor because the office had an obvious conflict of interest. Haas resisted calls to appoint a special counsel and himself dismissed the charges against his relative.
One interesting back story: Haas in his response to the complaint notes how certain records from the Siekaj case would normally have been destroyed pursuant to standard archival practices. But they were not. At a time when he was away from his office in 2016, they were released in response to an anonymous public records request. That resulted in them being preserved and now available to investigators. We were not able to determine who filed the anonymous public records request. But the disclosure of those records, so they could be preserved, was done by prosecutors or other staff then in Haas’ office who later resigned and opposed his re-election. Haas says it was Kennedy who responded to the anonymous request. It appears that the groundwork for Landes’ complaint was started years ago. If that is the case, on an editorial note, it shows that Mr. Kennedy can be a formidable adversary.
This raises an issue as to why Landes waited until 2018 to notify the Bar Association of her concerns. Haas told investigators it was for political reasons. He went to the extreme of photographing the political bumper stickers on her car to show she was supporting Kenndy and Walker’s opponent. Landes told them she waited until her final year on the bench so that Haas would not be disqualifying her from presiding over all his cases and causing the county increased costs in having to pay an outside judge to fulfill her duties.
A ruling will eventually be rendered by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Haas could face a range of sanctions and possible referral for criminal prosecution. Or he could be exonerated. The determination could be made public. If not, we will seek it through another public records request.
[This article has been corrected to state Mr. Sturdivant’s departure for a prosecution job in Snohomish County and that he has not yet been interviewed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.]
Once upon a time the Boiler Room was a good thing for teens and Port Townsend. We have all heard the stories of rewarding friendships, of lives changed and lives saved.
But when news of the Boiler Room’s closing made its way around town, we also heard more than a few parents saying, “It should have closed long ago. That’s where my kids learned to do drugs.”
We heard much the same from police: The Boiler Room had become a marketplace for things parents weren’t sending their kids there to get.
Somewhere along the way, the Boiler Room became as lost and confused as the teens it had set out to serve.
Work on a story regarding conflicts between the Boiler Room and its neighbors was shelved when the Boiler Room announced its closing. Some of the people interviewed had volunteered there, but as they saw and learned more their attitudes changed. They wanted the Boiler Room out of their neighborhood. The didn’t see troubled teens getting help; they saw the problems besetting teens being enabled and ignored. They told us of screaming and fights on the street, of tires slashed, of being accosted at their doors by people drawn to the area by the Boiler Room’s wide-open door and free stuff.
The Boiler Room leadership has admitted that they lost control of their facility. They let their youth service program become a hangout for transients and people no parent would want within arm’s reach of their teenage daughter or son. The Boiler Room leadership could not decide whether it was better to be perceived as “welcoming” and “nondiscriminatory” or take action to preserve and protect its original, laudable mission.
Perhaps if the Boiler Room’s leadership had been able to make that choice it would still be open and doing what it had been created to do.
During the Prop 1 campaign in 2017, a man was arrested for slashing signs in broad daylight along roadways in Port Hadlock. As soon as his name was released, social media spread the word. He was known at the Boiler Room where he had been aggressive towards young women. He had a record of violence. He was described as a stalker, volatile and dangerous. He is man in his fifties.
David Faber, President of the Boiler Room, said in comments after this story was published that this man had been excluded from the Boiler Room since 2011. Faber related in comments on the Rural Rebels Facebook page at the time of this man’s arrest that he had threatened to kill at least one person and had severe mental health issues that made him very dangerous. Faber said he was so dangerous that the man had been prohibited from coming “anywhere near” Faber’s law office. Another commenter, who volunteered at the Boiler Room, said his picture had been posted to alert staff if he came inside despite orders to stay away. At the time of this man’s arrest, we had seen social media posts that he had been there more recently. Visits to the Boiler Room were reportedly one of the reasons he came into town from his home in Quilcene. Regardless of when the Boiler Room learned of this man’s dangerous nature, when they decided to keep him out and whether they succeeded without exception, a more consequential question remains unanswered by Mr. Faber and Boiler Room leaders: Why was he ever permitted to spend time inside? Why would the organization let the kids it was supposed to be protecting and helping ever be exposed to anybody like this? To repeat, this is a man in his fifties. He was not a teen looking for help and friendship. [This paragraph has been updated since publication to take into consideration comments and attempts to verify Mr. Faber’s statements. We were unable to verify all that Mr. Faber told us but are including his side, nonetheless].
Even scarier was the man banging on the Boiler Room’s door one morning this past summer. He wanted free coffee before he went looking for someone to kill.
Neighbors had seen and heard him: a frightening presence on their street, drawn to downtown because the Boiler Room was known to admit anyone inside its doors.
Later that day he hunted down a harmless homeless man and nearly stabbed him to death at a spot just two blocks away.
Shortly after, the Boiler Room announced it was closing. It had been losing volunteers. Its financial support had “fallen off a cliff,” in the words of its executive director. Parents did not want their kids there. It traded future teen success stories for a faltering existence as a “day shelter” for transients.
What does this have to do with a comment policy for Port Townsend Free Press? It persuades us to act.
We had allowed unrestricted comments when we were on the Blogger platform before our move to WordPress and our new website. Our Facebook page has always been open to comments. We have been watching and learning as we consider opening the website to comments. What we’ve learned is that we need a comment policy before we activate the comments at ptfreepress.com.
One particular official of the City of Port Townsend has been a prolific commenter on our Facebook page. We like a good debate and encourage contrary points of view. But his contributions rarely rise above insults and abuse. Invitations for civil and substantive discourse are met with more insults and taunts. Profanity in his comments is not uncommon.
In a recent give-and-take around an article on the state of Jefferson County finances, he revealed that his sole purpose all along has been to “f### around in your comments.” He showed himself to be nothing more than a vandal.
We put the decision to our readers as to whether we should block this Port Townsend official from commenting. It was a vigorous discussion. We got a fair share of profanity, abuse and insults from his friends, people he called into the discussion who had never before appeared in our comments. We also heard from others who had blocked this Port Townsend official from their Facebook pages because of his inappropriate behavior. They encouraged us to do the same. And we heard from people of the opinion that excluding anyone, regardless of what they say or how they say it, would make Port Townsend Free Press the antithesis of “free.”.
Several comments by Sky Hardesty of Port Townsend, who is a contributor to PTFP, steered us toward a decision. He observed that the city official was using his “insults, intimidation and relentlessness…to drown out free speech.”
We have readers who will not wade through profanity and threats to follow a thread of serious discussion of local issues. They drop out and do not express their thoughts. They know that if they dare speak up, they, too, might become targets for the profanity and abuse.
The sight of profanity and taunts in comments also can drive away new readers.
We will not by inaction and indecision let such conduct do to our young effort what happened to the Boiler Room.
So we announce our comment policy: “We welcome contrary viewpoints. Diversity of opinion is sorely lacking in Port Townsend, in part because dissenting views are often suppressed, self-censored and made very unwelcome. Port Townsend Free Press was launched to do something about that situation. Insults, taunts, bullying, intimidation and profanity do not qualify as serious discourse. They deter and drown it out. Comments of that nature will be removed and offenders will be blocked.”
The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners has a simple but huge problem. The government is spending more than it takes in. Beginning in January we’ll see whether the board, with its newest member, is up to the challenge.
Between 2011 and 2016, general fund revenues were essentially in line with expenditures. The budget was balanced. But beginning in 2017, commissioners fell into the trap of deficit spending. It continued into the current budget year and the trend line indicates chronic deficit spending through 2022. To make up the difference, the county must tap the unreserved fund.
With projected 2018 general fund expenditures of $19.46 million and projected revenues of just $18.6 million – and no improvement in these trends in the foreseeable future – a real problem emerges. The county freely admitted this in its 2018 budget presentation, noting that, “over the next 5 years without new revenues, and even before a recession, we expect to need to use most of the unreserved fund balance to maintain existing service levels,” estimating that the fund would be drained by 87% within five years.
To its credit, the BoCC took a step to solve the problem by green-lighting the Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort in Brinnon, ushering in new potential revenue streams of millions of dollars as the MPR is built out. But even this modest effort to grow the tax base and invigorate the local economy is being challenged by a small minority that has taken the board’s decision to court to block through litigation what they failed to stop through the legislative process.
The county’s budget problems extend beyond squabbles over the Brinnon resort. While the population of Jefferson County has grown more than 18% since 2000, the number of kids in school has dropped across large areas of the county. Port Townsend school enrollment ticked-up this year, but Chimacum and Quilcene schools have seen declines. Without a workable plan for economic development in these parts of the county we can’t expect to see a lot of young families moving in, bringing with them the kind of growth we need.
Some have claimed that expanded Internet service will do the trick, while others say sewer infrastructure is the answer. Both are good ideas, but determining which to prioritize is a thornier exercise. One is less expensive, but cost ought not be the sole factor. We need to look at solutions that yield the greatest return on investment.
Absent any meaningful economic growth, the county is left with two choices. We can either reduce spending or increase taxes. One part of the budget ripe for cutting is salaries and benefits for county employees, which account for 55% of all general fund expenditures for 2018. The fact 55% of the general fund is spent determining how to spend the remaining 45% is symptomatic of bloated government. The biggest single general fund line item in the 2018 budget is law enforcement. The expenditure of $6.11 million for the sheriff’s office is six-times that of the next largest expenditure, but nobody wants to see cuts in public safety.
As for finding additional revenues, anything other than raising the property or sales tax is tinkering around the edges. Of the $18.5 million in revenue projected for the 2018 budget, nearly $11 million comes in the form of taxes on homes and retail sales. People will tolerate a certain level of higher taxation, whether by higher tax rates or inflated assessments on real estate, but eventually, people will begin to vote with their feet and leave.
Many Jefferson County residents currently do just that, in a manner of speaking, by spending their retail dollars in Clallam or Kitsap Counties. Both counties encourage the sort of retail development that, unlike Jefferson County, reflects the demands of 21st century consumers. Wooden toys, handmade soap and scented candles are fine as far as they go. But when a family on a budget needs to get household products in bulk, buy back-to-school clothes or do their Christmas shopping, many are driving out of the county and taking sales tax revenue with them.
Every family in Jefferson County knows they have to live within their means. When they don’t have enough money, they either work harder and earn more or they spend less. They have to balance their household budget. Taxpayers should expect the same from local government without surrendering more of their hard-earned money.
Failure to attract new business to Jefferson County is not an option. The status quo is unsustainable. Our commissioners know this and they need to fix the problem.
Governor Jay Inslee can still be a climate champion on a global scale. Sure, he didn’t get a carbon tax to hold up as an example of the sacrifice his state was willing to make. Voters again rejected a plan he backed that would have made gasoline, propane, electricity—actually everything—more expensive in the name of symbolically fighting climate change.
This is the second time Washington voters have resisted such a measure. The first was I-732 in 2016. This year it was I-1631 going down, even as other “progressive” initiatives prevailed.
The legislature in its last session failed to give Inslee a carbon tax by way of direct legislation, also the second time that route has dead-ended. In 2014 it was his cap-and-trade plan that flopped.
When he introduced his carbon tax bill in January 2018, Inslee said it was “time to step up.”
He should listen to himself. Instead of making an example of the rest of us, Governor Inslee can lead by personal example. He can be a zero-emissions Governor.
photo by mynorthwest.com
Human beings emit 2.3 pounds of carbon daily, eight times more under exertion. We’re not calling on Governor Inslee to stop breathing or giving speeches, though his bombastic delivery probably dumps more carbon into the atmosphere than most orators.
We’re being serious. Governor Inslee, right now, starting today, can do everything he wants the rest of us to do to meet a challenge he insists threatens the existence of civilization.
He can begin with his transportation choices. This is an easy step for him. No more travelling in any vehicle that burns gasoline or diesel. He, his family, his staff and his security detail should restrict themselves to those Chevy Bolts Inslee is buying to meet his green vehicle goals for the state’s fleet. And there’s always bicycles and walking to get around Olympia. Or he can take a clean, green bus. And no Lincoln Towncars to and from the airports on his far flung journeys.
If he is really taking climate change seriously, he can cease his nearly constant travels across the nation and to foreign countries. All that travel contributes to the demand for burning aviation fuel. Internet conferencing is the alternative with climate integrity. It has no carbon footprint at all.
Sure, it forecloses opportunities for glad-handing and photo ops and cocktails. But in the face of impending doom those considerations are meaningless.
Governor Inslee can practice climate integrity in every aspect of his life. He should prohibit any deliveries to the Governor’s mansion of anything that relied on burned fossil fuels to get there. No more Amazon Fulfillment Center boxes on the doorstep unless they arrive by electric vehicle or bike.
Speaking of the Governor’s mansion, it is not exactly a model of climate virtue. Governor Inslee should prohibit the use of any electricity that is generated even in part by the burning of fossil fuels. Turn down the heat and turn off the air conditioner. And do something about the high maintenance landscaping unless it is performed with no power tools and internal combustion mowers Replace that dead zone of a lawn with a young forest that soaks CO2 from the atmosphere.
Please get some solar panels up there on the roof, Governor, and wind turbines in all that open space. Those structures may clash with the manse’s neo-colonial style, but consider what’s at stake.
And there’s the Governor’s diet. Climate activists tell us we must all become vegetarians to save the planet from burning up and our cities from drowning. So, Governor Inslee, no more hamburgers, steaks, sausages, chops, chicken tenders, tacos, barbecue, salmon filets, clam bakes, crab cakes or steamed mussels unless they are formed from legumes, seeds and grains. Insist Tofurky be the main course on the mansion’s Thanksgiving menu.
As a true climate champion, Inslee can bring other leaders with him. For instance, Senators Cantwell and Patty Murray, and our local congressman, Derek Kilmer, echo his call for bold efforts to fight climate change. He can use his bully pulpit to persuade or shame them into turnng off the air conditioning in their offices. D.C.’s electricity relies on a lot of burned coal and natural gas. The HFCs that can be released from AC units are another driver, we are told, of global warming. For well over half the history of this country Congress got its job done without air conditioning. The founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution without once adjusting room temperature. So no excuse, Congresscritters. Just wear shorts and open the windows.
Governor Inslee, please tell them.
When he visits Paris for the next climate conference—strike that, when his image appears on television screens in conference rooms near the Eiffel Tower—Governor Inslee can shame world leaders into becoming legitimate climate heroes like himself. With the planet’s billionaires, politicians and movie stars all reducing their standard of living to stave off climate apocalypse, think of the millions who may be inspired to follow suit. They won’t need government with its hand on their necks and in their pockets. They will do it out of selfless love for the planet.
This may prove bad for Paris hotels and restaurants because thousands of climate activists will no longer descend upon the City of Lights with fat expense accounts. But aren’t smaller travel and entertainment budgets for climate activists a positive for the planet?
If you’re thinking we’re getting silly, it may be because you realize Governor Inslee and others of his stature, power and wealth will not make the personal sacrifices they demand of the rest of us. As law professor Glenn Reynolds, a contributor to USA Today and creator of the Instapundit blog frequently says about hypocrisy by self-proclaimed climate leaders, “I’ll believe it’s an emergency when they start acting like it.”
Governor Inslee can dispel such unfortunately justified cynicism by stepping up, personally and profoundly, before he rolls out another plan to conscript us into his grand vision. Great leaders don’t need to be told they must set the example they wish others to follow.
Rural Rebels Facebook page at the time of this man’s arrest that he had threatened to kill at least one person and had severe mental health issues that made him very dangerous. Faber said he was so dangerous that the man had been prohibited from coming “anywhere near” Faber’s law office. Another commenter, who volunteered at the Boiler Room, said his picture had been posted to alert staff if he came inside despite orders to stay away. At the time of this man’s arrest, we had seen social media posts that he had been there more recently. Visits to the Boiler Room were reportedly one of the reasons he came into town from his home in Quilcene. Regardless of when the Boiler Room learned of this man’s dangerous nature, when they decided to keep him out and whether they succeeded without exception, a more consequential question remains unanswered by Mr. Faber and Boiler Room leaders: Why was he ever permitted to spend time inside? Why would the organization let the kids it was supposed to be protecting and helping ever be exposed to anybody like this? To repeat, this is a man in his fifties. He was not a teen looking for help and friendship. [This paragraph has been updated since publication to take into consideration comments and attempts to verify Mr. Faber’s statements. We were unable to verify all that Mr. Faber told us but are including his side, nonetheless].
