The lawmen and the lawsuit

John Weick has spent a career putting people in jail.

He didn’t expect to go there himself. But then, he didn’t expect to be involved in a business deal that has devolved into a complex lawsuit that has kept, at times, eight attorneys busy for the past two years conducting depositions and filing motions, counterclaims and appeals to the tune of an estimated $60,000.

But the retired 20-year Los Angeles police officer, owner of a Coeur d’Alene-based private security agency and candidate for Kootenai County sheriff, was led away in handcuffs Tuesday when 1st District Court Judge John Mitchell found Weick in contempt of court and ordered five days in jail for failing to attend a May debtor’s exam in the lawsuit.

Weick appeared surprised when a bailiff, hurriedly summoned from down the hall, appeared at his side and asked Weick to put his hands out to be cuffed. He was led away out the back hallway.

“I feel very strongly my civil rights were violated,” Weick said from his Coeur d’Alene office Friday morning.

The scene was nearly surreal. The police officers and lawyers involved in the lawsuit – with nice suits and better haircuts – waited while Mitchell dealt with a young man in an orange jail jumpsuit and a crew cut who admitted to using methamphetamine while awaiting sentencing.

The inmate was sentenced to probation with a sharp warning that the penitentiary awaited if there was another violation.

“You saw the kid in front of us. He was a dope dealer, and he was getting breaks. I wasn’t getting any breaks,” Weick said. “I’m a business owner. I pay taxes.”

The lawsuit was filed by incumbent Sheriff Rocky Watson and his wife, Mary Watson, over nonpayment for a business they sold to Weick late in 2001. The Watsons have won two motions for summary judgment in which the court ruled that Weick’s claims of breach of contract and fraud held no merit.

Weick, in late 2001, agreed to purchase Watson Agency, a security firm the Watsons had run for about 25 years. According to court documents, Weick stopped making payments on the $1.15 million deal sometime in 2002. The Watsons sued in November of that year.

Weick, on Friday, said various employee benefits, federal tax withholdings and Montana and California tax bills that were supposed to have been paid by the Watsons before the purchase were not paid. Later he discovered X-ray scanning machines at the county courthouse, staffed by Watson Agency security guards and listed as company assets in his documents of sale, actually had been sold to the county, Weick said.

If the terms of sale were breached, or if it’s possible he was defrauded out of ownership of the X-ray scanners, Weick insisted, “The contract is null and void, and if the contract goes out the window, so do my payments.”

The court has so far not agreed, finding no merit with his case, which Mitchell called weak. Weick said he would like a change of venue. He might ask the Idaho attorney general’s office to get involved. Weick said he thinks he cannot get a fair hearing in Kootenai County when the sheriff is involved in the lawsuit.

Weick has appealed two court orders that he resume making payments. Weick said Mitchell has erred in not allowing the lawsuit to go to a jury trial. On July 15, he filed an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Weick said it was his growing sense of injustice and unfairness about the case that prompted him to file as a candidate for sheriff. Kootenai County officials said Weick filed as an independent candidate just 15 minutes before the deadline in March.

Tuesday’s contempt of court hearing arose because Weick missed a debtor’s exam in mid-May. Mitchell said he found Weick’s excuse of diarrhea – offered five minutes before the exam was to start – unbelievable, especially because Weick flew to California the day after the missed exam.

Accommodations could have been made for an illness, Mitchell said.

Weick, on Friday, said he believes few people would leave their homes to do anything, especially sit through a potentially confrontational hearing, when afflicted with diarrhea. As for his travel the next day: “I felt better.” He attended the debtor’s exam when it was rescheduled two weeks later, he said.

The sticky issue of sending a candidate for sheriff into the incumbent’s jail was discussed in detail Tuesday morning in court. The parties agreed Weick should be transported to a different county as soon as possible. Sheriff Watson, through attorney Joel Hazel, said he’d prefer Weick only report to the sheriff’s labor program and not be jailed at all. After a short consultation, Weick’s attorney, Michael Ramsden, said, “We decline.”

Weick spent the rest of Tuesday in the Kootenai County and Shoshone County jails before a second judge, in Shoshone County, ordered his release about 5 p.m.

Jailers at both places were courteous, he said.

“I’m writing a letter to the county commissioners – not to Rocky – commending the jail staff for their professionalism,” Weick said.