Gu Instructor To Replace Baechler

A Gonzaga Law School instructor who used to teach fourth grade in Newport was named Pend Oreille County District Court judge Tuesday.

County commissioners selected Philip J. Van de Veer from 13 applicants and five finalists for the position from which Chuck Baechler resigned Nov. 1. The Washington Supreme Court forced Baechler to step down because of an investigation into allegations that he stalked and raped a woman who appeared before him as a defendant.

Van de Veer, 45, will take office Feb. 1.

“I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to doing the job with my best efforts,” Van de Veer said.

Although the $60,000-a-year job is considered part-time, Van de Veer said he plans to treat it as full-time. He will quit his job as an instructor of legal research and writing and director of a Gonzaga Law School program that provides extra help to students with special problems.

Van de Veer also plans to end the part-time work he does for the Spokane law firm of Evans, Craven & Lackie.

“I want to avoid any conflicts,” he said.

County Commissioner Karl McKenzie, who initially favored another candidate, said he joined commissioners Joel Jacobsen and Mike Hanson in supporting Van de Veer. The fact that Van de Veer doesn’t live or practice law in the county will help make him “impartial to the community,” McKenzie said. “The gentleman we picked, I think, is going to be a good judge.”

Van de Veer said he and his wife, Bobbie, plan to move to Pend Oreille County. To keep his new job, Van de Veer must live in the county and win election in November 2000. Unlike vacancies in other elected offices, District Court appointments are good until the next countywide general election.

The couple has a cabin at Furport in Pend Oreille County, but Van de Veer said it lacks running water and electricity.

The Van de Veers, who have two adult children, previously lived in Newport in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he taught fourth grade at Sadie Halstead Elementary for six years. He previously worked at an area sawmill and for the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the nearby Albeni Falls Dam.

Van de Veer earned his law degree from Gonzaga Law School in 1987 and practiced in Spokane before joining the law school staff in 1994. Since 1981, he and his wife have attended Spring Valley Mennonite Church, where Commissioner Jacobsen also is a member.