Spokane County Prosecutor

Two men who worked side by side five years ago are facing off in Spokane County’s most heated election.

Steve Tucker is bidding to unseat Prosecutor James Sweetser, a man he supported in the 1994 election.

Tucker contends Sweetser’s management style has hurt the prosecutor’s office, creating low morale, widespread attorney defections and frayed relations with law enforcement.

A former Washington State Patrol trooper, Tucker served for 10 years as a deputy prosecutor in Spokane. He quit in 1997, claiming Sweetser targeted him for discipline because he was president of a union representing deputy prosecutors.

Sweetser denies that. He says a drug team supervisor recommended Tucker be suspended for not taking cases to trial, for not following guidelines for arranging plea bargains and for repeated absences.

The state troopers association and the Spokane County deputies labor organization have endorsed Tucker. The city’s Police Guild has taken no position.

Sweetser says morale in his office is high and that he’s made the community safer through more aggressive prosecution of criminal defendants. He’s also introduced needed standards and office evaluation systems, he said.

Some disgruntled veteran prosecutors have left, he conceded, but that stems from union bitterness for his refusing to grant their wishes.

“Some people felt the union would run this office. They had false expectations about that and when I made clear there would be accountability (in the office), it led to complaints against me,” Sweetser said.

Both men once worked in the major crimes unit under Donald Brockett, the previous county prosecutor.

In 1994 Brockett reprimanded but did not suspend Sweetser for also failing to consult with superiors when he arranged a plea bargain in an attempted murder case.