Prosecutor’s request to disqualify new judge threatens judicial independence | Opinion
The District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association’s Council on Independent Courts is concerned about the recent attack on judicial independence and the will of the voters in Whatcom County.
Last year, Jonathan Rands, then a criminal defense attorney, decided that he wanted to serve the public by becoming a judge. His opponent for the open judicial seat was a deputy prosecutor for Whatcom County. As expected, the elected Whatcom County prosecutor endorsed one of his own deputies over Judge Rands, but the people overwhelmingly elected Judge Rands. However, it now appears that Judge Rands is the subject of an attack from the prosecutor simply because he was a defense attorney who handled DUIs before becoming a judge. The Council on Independent Courts would be writing this very same op-ed if the prosecutor had won and was then subjected to mass efforts to disqualify him from hearing cases simply because he was a prosecutor before becoming a judge.
Attorneys have an ethical duty to zealously promote their clients’ best interests. With a prosecutor, the “client” is the government. For a defense attorney the “client” is the person charged with a crime. In carrying out the role of advocate, the attorneys do not get to pick and choose which arguments they agree or disagree with, they simply must pursue meritorious claims and defenses on behalf of their respective clients and zealously represent them within the bounds of the law.
Judges have no clients; judges are the guardians of fairness, due process, the law and the constitution. When the people elected Judge Rands, he assumed a different role in the justice system, one of a neutral decision-maker. He deserves the chance to prove this based upon the decisions he now makes. However, the prosecutor appears to have dismissed him as someone who is incapable of being fair on DUIs before he ever made a single ruling.
It appears as though the prosecutors are seeking to disqualify the duly elected judge the people of Whatcom County chose simply because their chosen candidate lost and Judge Rands had been a good advocate for his clients while he was defense attorney. Seeking the same type of immediate mass disqualification of a former prosecutor would be the same type of insult to judicial independence that we would also vigorously oppose.
The prosecutor’s actions not only appear to be an attempt to intimidate Judge Rands into ruling in their favor, but it also sends a message to would-be judicial candidates that the prosecutors will not only oppose anyone who did their job well but that they will also prevent that person from fulfilling their judicial duties. In effect, this is what the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office appears to have done to Judge Rands, excluding Judge Rands from doing the job the voters elected him to perform. However, the ultimate victims are taxpayers who are on the hook for the cost of substitute judges to handle cases the prosecutor has unilaterally deemed Judge Rands unfit to hear.
The judiciary cannot be subject by undue pressure to adhere to the wishes of the most powerful instead of adhering to the fundamentals of justice and fairness for all, as is required under the Washington State Judicial Canons. That, none of us should ever tolerate or accept.
Whatcom County voters elected Judge Rands, and your prosecutor’s office attempts to overcome the will of the voters with no evidence that Judge Rands cannot be fair. This dangerous and troublesome precedent violates the very fundamental principles of judicial independence that we are charged to protect.
Rebecca C. Robertson is a King County District Court judge and chair of the District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association’s Council on Independent Courts. David A. Larson is a Federal Way Municipal Court judge and member of the District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association’s Council on Independent Courts.
The Council on Independent Courts membership includes Robertson and Larson, as well as the following judges who have endorsed this op-ed, Spokane Municipal Court Judge Mary Logan, Clallam County District Court Judge David Neupert, Issaquah Municipal Court Judge Scott Stewart, Adams County District Court Judge Carolyn Benzel, Snohomish County District Court Judge Douglas Fair, Benton County District Court Judge Jennifer Azure and Bainbridge Island Municipal Court Judge Sara McCullouch.
