Judge hopefuls focus on experience

Some of the challengers running against incumbent Spokane County District Court judges are demanding reform.

Timothy Trageser, a longtime Spokane criminal defense attorney, isn’t one of them. He says the court is in “pretty good shape.” Instead, he’s stressing his background in criminal law.

“This is a criminal court,” he said. “I have at least represented 7,000 people.” That experience, he said, will translate into better decisions when it comes to sentencing or deciding what defendants are best suited to participate in alternative programs outside the jail.

The incumbent, Richard Leland, has worked in the legal field almost as long as Trageser, even if his experience is more varied than Trageser’s focus on criminal defense.

Leland responds by stressing his experience on the bench. He was appointed judge by the Spokane County Commission last year. Before that he was a judge pro-tem – a substitute judge – for seven years.

“I have superior judicial experience,” Leland said.

Leland notes that he served as a public defender for a year and has experience in a wide variety of law, including civil cases and family law. He also has financial background from his time working for the Farm Credit Bureau before he went to law school. Besides handling crimes punishable by up to a year in jail, District Court handles other matters, including small-claim disputes.

Neither candidate has focused his campaign on the “ Blueprint for Reform,” a report issued by the Spokane Regional Criminal Justice Commission earlier this year and cited by two of the four candidates challenging incumbent District Court judges in the November election. The report criticized Spokane County District Court for having an aversion to change. Both candidates say they support many parts of the report.

Leland said he has the ability to work with others in a way that could achieve reform.

“The District Court has been somewhat isolated,” Leland said. “What the Blueprint wants to do is to come together as a county.”

Trageser said improvement is needed in how the court operates. He’s especially concerned about a wide discrepancy he sees among judicial decisions from the court’s judges in sentencing, determining which defendents are allowed to participate in alternative programs and other issues. But he doesn’t see a need for drastic reform.

“We’re hearing a lot about smart justice, smart justice, smart justice, but I think we have been smart in terms of our justice system,” Trageser said. “I don’t think we need wholesale change.”

Trageser’s most recognizable client was Kevin Coe, known as the South Hill rapist. Trageser was assigned to defend him in 2006 just before Coe was scheduled to be released and the state determined he remained a danger. A jury in 2008 determined Coe is a sexually violent predator, and he remains locked up indefinitely.

Trageser says he’s proud of his work on the case, though he has since decided to stop his defense work in civil commitment cases involving sexual predators.

“I defended my client vigorously,” Trageser said. “At the same time, I did not revictimize the victims.”

He said that Leland’s campaign has been using his defense of Coe against him, a charge that Leland denies.

“I don’t know of anybody who has raised that issue,” said Leland, adding that Coe had a right to an attorney.

Michael Mears, a Trageser supporter who lives near Shadle Park, said when he contacted the Leland campaign requesting that the campaign take back a sign placed in his yard, Leland’s son answered and brought up Trageser’s representation of Coe.

“It had no bearing on the conversation at all,” Mears said.

Leland has won the endorsements of all Spokane County District Court and Spokane Municipal Court judges, most of the Spokane County Superior Court judges and is able to list the backing of U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and the Spokane Regional Labor Council.

Trageser’s endorsements include several Democratic groups, Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno, for whom he once worked, and prosecuting attorney candidate Breean Beggs.