Amaro backer files third complaint against Mitchell

The head of a political action committee endorsing judicial candidate Rami Amaro said Tuesday he has filed a third complaint against incumbent 1st District Judge John T. Mitchell.

Robert Siegwarth, head of Citizens Promoting Judicial Accountability, had earlier accused Mitchell of misusing stationery and mischaracterizing the reasons he had been disqualified from cases. Siegwarth has hired Amaro as an attorney in a case that was before Mitchell.

The new complaint to the Idaho Judicial Council levels three more allegations against Mitchell.

Siegwarth accuses Mitchell of having Muriel Burke, a volunteer with the Mental Health Drug Court, “hand out pre-written letters (to the editor) to the defendants in that court to sign and return.”

A letter signed by Dusty Davis, which appeared in the Coeur d’Alene Press, was attached to the complaint. Davis, the second graduate of the program, said she wrote the letter endorsing Mitchell, the judge who started and runs the program, because she believed drug court changed her life.

“It’s the best thing that happened to me,” Davis said, adding that she conducted her own research for her letter.

The complaint said the letter “does appear to have been written by someone other than the defendant due to its contents.”

Burke, a special deputy prosecuting attorney for the program and a former employee of Amaro’s, said she didn’t draft the letter. She took offense to the insinuation that someone in the program wasn’t capable of writing a letter to the editor.

“Dusty is very bright and very articulate,” Burke said. “If (Siegwarth) wants to make condescending comments about her, that’s very inappropriate.”

Siegwarth also alleges endorsements of Mitchell by candidates for political office or elected officials violate the judicial code of ethics. The complaint includes a copy of a page from Mitchell’s campaign Web site that has endorsements of the judge.

“As far as I know it’s not an endorsement by a political party,” said Barry McHugh, treasurer for Mitchell’s campaign. “It’s an endorsement by an individual.”

Mitchell said Tuesday the code prohibits judges and judicial candidates from endorsing a political party or candidate, but “it doesn’t say that any non-judicial candidate can’t endorse me or endorse Rami.”

The complaint’s final allegation concerns a hot dog barbecue held for Mitchell on Saturday in Sandpoint.

Siegwarth alleges that Mitchell listed the event on the Bonner County Republican Central Committee Web site “without a disclaimer.” Siegwarth said a coffee event for Amaro included a disclaimer saying the Republicans didn’t endorse candidates in nonpartisan races.

Dan Young, secretary for the county’s Republican committee, said the calendar is put together by a volunteer. Though the copy of the calendar attached to the complaint didn’t include a disclaimer under Mitchell’s event, the Web site on Tuesday included a disclaimer under the hot dog barbecue.

Young said the volunteer forgot to put the disclaimer under Mitchell’s event and two others and made the change to the site on Tuesday.

“She said, ‘I messed up a couple of things and corrected them,’ ” Young said. “Nobody told her to change it. She wasn’t instructed to.”

The complaint also says the barbecue was held at GOP headquarters, which “indicates an endorsement by a political party.” The headquarters are in a room with a separate outside entrance at Rainbow Realty, Young’s business, he said.

Young said he organized the event, along with some Democrats, so people in Sandpoint would have a chance to meet Mitchell. He said Rainbow Realty, not the GOP, hosted the event in the parking lot of the business.

The Republican Party didn’t buy the hot dogs, either, he said.