Phone Harassment Case Dropped

Telephone harassment charges against suspended Issaquah School Superintendent William Stewart were dropped Monday after key prosecution evidence was ruled inadmissable.

Stewart had been accused of making harassing calls to the family of a then-married woman. Prosecutors said he was obsessed with Joyce Minehan, a Kent elementary school teacher. Both Stewart and Minehan have divorced their respective spouses since the nine-month siege of calls, which began in September 1993.

Stewart has denied allegations that he was involved with Minehan, saying he and Minehan were friends and that he turned to her for solace as he struggled with cancer. The defense suggested someone else may have placed the calls.

The state’s case against Stewart was keyed to testimony from a voice-identification expert at the University of Washington, who had been expected to testify there was a 99 percent chance the voice on the recorded messages was Stewart’s.

Defense lawyers Jenny Durkan and Mark Robinson successfully moved to exclude the evidence, arguing that it did not meet a strict legal standard for admission of scientific evidence.