Court Official Faces Criminal Assistance Charge Pend Oreille Clerk Accused Of Hiding Fugitive In Her Courthouse Office

Pend Oreille County Superior Court Clerk Winnie Sundseth faces a criminal charge for allegedly harboring a fugitive in her office.

Special Prosecutor Clark Colwell announced Wednesday that he will file a charge of second-degree rendering criminal assistance against Sundseth later this week or early next week.

Ironically, the charge will be recorded in the same office where Sundseth, 53, is accused of helping Newport-area resident Randy D. Brown, 35, avoid arrest on June 15. Sundseth is accused of having Brown in her office while telling law officers she didn’t know where he was.

A probation officer and sheriff’s deputies were searching Pend Oreille Hall of Justice for Brown, who was waiting for a court appearance. The officers had warrants accusing Brown of violating his probation and a court order to keep away from his estranged wife.

Undersheriff Dick Arend said deputies reported that they or the probation officer went to Sundseth’s office three times in their search for Brown. On the third occasion, he said, Brown emerged from under a counter.

Colwell declined to say why Sundseth, who has no criminal record, would hide Brown.

Sundseth and her attorney, Doug Lambarth, did not respond to requests for comment. However, Sundseth said earlier that Brown had been told to wait in her office until Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson could answer a question about Brown’s case.

Brown was in her private office because her outer office was too crowded, Sundseth said. She said she was never approached by a sheriff’s deputy, and doesn’t recall telling anyone she didn’t know where Brown was.

Sundseth called the incident “an apparent misunderstanding between departments.”

She said she was approached only by county probation officer Phil Hackwith, and didn’t know whether he had authority to make an arrest. No one showed her a search warrant, Sundseth added.

The charge against Sundseth is a gross misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, but sentences for people with no criminal records often are just a few days or weeks.

Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger has directed Colwell to handle the prosecution independently. Colwell retired last year as chief deputy criminal prosecutor in Spokane County.

Under state law, a public official must be removed from office if convicted of a felony, but not for a misdemeanor.

Sundseth, who was appointed in 1989 after five years as a deputy clerk, was re-elected to a second four-year term last November.

, DataTimes