State Patrol and local prosecutor: Labor’s “not one more dime” e-mail was not a crime…

The Washington State Labor Council e-mail that sparked a furor last week “did not constitute criminal conduct,” the head of the State Patrol said this afternoon. (I posted the WSP e-mail at the link below.)

“We looked carefully at the e-mail and at the law,” said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “We could not find a specific criminal statute that was violated.” He said WSP detectives consulted with the Thurston County Prosecutor’s office.

The initial e-mail, the result of a strategy session of union officials, urged them to give lawmakers the message “not one more dime from labor” until the governor signed a law banning companies from requiring employees to attend meetings about unionization, religion or charitable giving. In response, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, House Speaker Frank Chopp and the governor issued a joint statement saying that they’d killed the bill and called the cops.

The labor council sent out a statement saying that it regretted the incident but felt it had broken no law. And many people in Olympia noted that the e-mail gave top lawmakers a way out of a heated tug-of-war between labor and business groups, which hated the proposal.

Batiste called the decision of awmakers and the governor to refer the matter to detectives “entirely appropriate.”

“We certainly understand why the recipients were concerned,” Batiste said.

Next stop: the state Public Disclosure Commission. The PDC, which regulates campaign finances and reporting, has asked for everything the state patrol looked at.

WSP REVIEW DETERMINES LABOR E-MAIL NOT CRIMINAL

(Olympia)— Washington State Patrol detectives, after consulting with the
Thurston County Prosecutor’s office, have determined that the e-mail sent to
legislative leaders last week from an employee of the Washington State Labor
Council did not constitute criminal conduct.

“We looked carefully at the e-mail and at the law,” said State Patrol Chief
John R. Batiste. “We could not find a specific criminal statute that was
violated.”

The e-mail appeared to tie future campaign contributions to legislative and
gubernatorial action on a particular bill. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown,
Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Governor Chris Gregoire referred the
matter to law enforcement.

“We certainly understand why the recipients were concerned,” said
Batiste. “It was entirely appropriate for them to have requested a criminal
review.”

Because detectives were quickly able to determine the e-mail did not violate
criminal statutes, no investigation beyond the initial review was necessary.

At the request of the Public Disclosure Commission, all materials reviewed by
WSP detectives will be forwarded to the commission.

X X X