Pair To Launch Recall Drive Against Amend Today
A retired teacher and a political activist hoping to boot Spokane County Coroner Dexter Amend from office plan to take the first official step this morning.
They said they will file paperwork demanding Amend’s recall, three weeks after the coroner publicly condemned homosexuality and said only gays engage in sodomy.
Amend first made the comments while telling a television reporter that an autopsy revealed murder victim Rachel Carver, 9, was sodomized in the past.
“I feel he’s using his political office to express his uninformed views in public,” said Chris Christenson, a retired elementary school teacher who signed the recall petition along with Democratic activist Barbara Lampert.
Any recall vote probably won’t make it to the ballot until sometime next spring, said county Auditor Bill Donahue. Amend, through his secretary, refused to comment.
Any elected official can be recalled, but the process can take months. Within 15 days, the county prosecutor must formulate a ballot synopsis detailing the charge. Then a Superior Court judge has 15 days to conduct a hearing and determine whether the recall petition meets certain criteria.
State law says a valid petition must charge that the coroner broke the law, neglected or improperly performed his duties, or committed “wrongful conduct” affecting, interrupting or interfering with his duties.
Christenson said he will be able to prove Amend broke the law by publicly discussing Carver’s autopsy and the fact she’d been sodomized. “He disclosed information about her autopsy that was confidential,” Christenson said.
State law says reports and records of autopsies are confidential in most situations. It doesn’t, however, say the coroner can’t talk about autopsies.
In an interview with a Spokesman-Review reporter, Amend discussed the case but didn’t disclose autopsy records.
Petitioners also must gather signatures equaling 25 percent of the votes in the last coroner’s race. In this case, they’ll need to convince 35,156 registered voters to sign their petition, Donahue said. If they accomplish that, the auditor’s office then must verify the signatures.
“We have to have 45 days’ notice of stuff like this to get it on the ballot,” Donahue said. “They’re not going to make the November (election).”
If a Superior Court judge approves the recall petition and enough valid signatures are gathered, a special election likely will be set for next spring, he said.
Christenson, a member of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a non-profit group, said he hasn’t been very involved in politics in the past. A recent rally against Amend convinced him this was a worthwhile cause. “Maybe I’m representing the memory of the little girl,” he said. “I’m representing her and I’m representing myself.”
, DataTimes