Candidate Accuses Judge Of Ethics Violation Challenger St. Clair Says Payne Broke Attorney-Client Privilege

Incumbent Stevens County District Court Judge Pam Payne violated professional ethics by breaking attorney-client confidentiality, according to election rival Patty St. Clair.

St. Clair’s husband, Cliff Hopper, said he will complain to the Washington State Bar Association that Payne improperly divulged information in April that he gave her when she represented him two years ago.

Payne denied any wrongdoing.

St. Clair is challenging Payne for the part-time, $45,000-a-year District Court judge’s job to which Payne was appointed last May. St. Clair finished second to Payne in a three-way primary in September.

The dispute involves Payne’s representation of Hopper on a charge that he assaulted St. Clair in March 1994.

Hopper and St. Clair blame Payne for a Sept. 5 Spokesman-Review story that mentioned Hopper’s prosecution.

Hopper said in a recent newspaper advertisement that St. Clair “was shocked” that a Spokesman-Review reporter obtained information known only by “myself, my wife and my attorney, Pamela Payne.”

The information came from a police report in a District Court file, which is a public record.

Hopper, 39, was charged with fourth-degree domestic assault for allegedly pushing St. Clair, 38, to the ground in the parking lot of a Colville bar. They were arguing over her attending a male striptease show.

Police said Hopper, St. Clair and another witness all said Hopper pushed St. Clair down. Hopper and St. Clair had been drinking, police said.

Later, Hopper hired Payne to defend him against the charge, and St. Clair said there was no assault. Charles Burns, a deputy prosecutor at the time, dismissed the case in August 1994 as unwinnable.

St. Clair believes The Spokesman-Review report of the dismissal unfairly implied she arranged it. Payne “is the one who was friends with Mr. Burns and had the whole thing dumped,” St. Clair said.

Burns said Payne “negotiated with me like any other attorney on any other case,” and he needed little convincing.

“The unusual thing in this case was that Patty called (Superior Court) Judge (Fred) Stewart at 1 in the morning” to get her husband released from jail on the night of his arrest, Burns said.

Hopper hadn’t yet hired Payne.

St. Clair and Stewart refused to comment on whether she called the judge. Records show that Stewart released Hopper from jail at 12:55 a.m., 25 minutes after Hopper was arrested.

Hopper said Payne’s notes from a one-hour meeting “are apparently in somebody else’s possession.”

Payne denied the charge: “Nothing in my file has been given to anyone. There are no notes to give.”

St. Clair said Payne “called me up and she admitted she breached his confidence.” The call was made last April when the two women and three other attorneys were being screened by county commissioners for appointment to the District Court judgeship, St. Clair said.

“It may have been a personal confidence, but it was not unethical,” Payne said.

She said someone called to ask whether St. Clair, as a victim of domestic violence, would have a conflict in hearing such cases as a judge.

“I said she was not a victim,” Payne said. “There was no assault.”

Payne said she divulged only information she obtained from St. Clair, who was not her client.

But St. Clair said she never discussed the case with Payne.

Burns’ paralegal assistant, Brooks Goode, acknowledged he called Payne about St. Clair. He supported Payne’s account of their conversation.

, DataTimes