State v. Stone___ Wn,App ___,(39912-1-II) (Div II) Jan. 4, 2011.

“We hold that enforcement proceedings for LFO [Legal Financial Obligation] payment obligations arising from criminal
sentences, which may result in incarceration, triggered a fundamental due process right to
appointed counsel denied Stone at the March 23 hearing. We also hold that the trial court
violated Stone’s due process rights by imposing jail time without inquiring at the March 23
hearing into Stone’s ability to pay and without making a finding at the October 2 hearing of his
willful failure to pay.”

CASE SUMMARY (per Washington Defender Association):

LFOs/Right to Counsel: Enforcement of LFOs falls under the criminal statutes and requires counsel to be provided if noncompliance may result in incarceration.
State v. Stone___ Wn,App ___,(39912-1-II) (Div II) Jan. 4, 2011.
Facts: Mr. Stone was ordered to pay LFOs as part of a criminal sentence. Without counsel being appointed to him, he signed an order to pay or appear in Jefferson County, requiring a minimum payment of $25.00 per month. He missed payments and failed to appear and did not contact the court numerous times. He was eventually incarcerated for non-payment and did not have counsel provided for the court hearings where jail was imposed. The court imposed jail because Mr. Stone did not pay and did not contact the court to offer any information about his circumstances. The court did not make any finding on Mr. Stone’s ability to pay but punished him for not paying and not appearing/calling. The state argued that the enforcement fell under the civil contempt statutes rather than the criminal statutes and that if counsel was required, Mr. Stone had waived that right.

Held: Enforcement proceedings for LFO payment arising from criminal sentences fall under the criminal statutes, here under 9.94B.040 [and not the civil contempt statutes]. If enforcement may result in incarceration then a fundamental due process right to counsel applies. Here, the trial court violated Mr. Stone’s due process rights when it sanctioned him without inquiring about Mr. Stone’s ability to pay and without finding a willful failure to pay and without providing counsel.

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Above all, Judge Headrick was, as Craig Ritchie said, unflappable. He demonstrated an unusual amount of patience and politeness. For practitioners, this is often one of the most appreciated aspects of a judge.

A celebration of life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 7, 2012, in the Juan de Fuca Room at the Port Angeles Crabhouse restaurant, 221 North Lincoln Street, Port Angeles, Washington.

If you would like to offer a thought or memory about Rich, please forward your thoughts and we will post them.

A very nice Memorial Notice may found here at the Peninsula Daily News website.

We hope to see him back contributing to the needs of our county soon, and we wish him the best as he spends time regrouping to find his next path in life.

The WSBA is a co-sponsor of this site.

Steve Methner is not available as a moderator, so if someone has a suggestion, please contact President, Will Payne.

After the forum, the evaluation forms for prosecutor and judicial candidates will be mailed to only dues paid members for 2010 as of July 16, 2010. So, if you have not paid, please do so to Cliff Tassie. The evaluations will be mailed with a SASE envelope to return the evaluations to CCBA and the results will be blind. Past President, Carol Mortensen, President, Will Payne and 2011 President, Chris Koenig will tally the results and provide it to the members.

Please RSVP so a correct amount of food may be ordered for those who attend.

Of particular note for family law practictioners, LCR 94(f) makes substantial changes to the settlement conference procedures, and imposes heavy financial santcions for failing to comply with the rule. For example,  settlement conference briefs are now mandatory using the required form, and if filed late incur mandatory sanctions of $250-$500. Failing to appear at a settlement conference, without court permission, yields a mandatory sanction of $250.

Administrative rule 0.7 requires all pleadings to be in at least 12 point type.

Local rules may be found at www.courts.wa.gov

Clallam County officials present included Clallam County Superior Court Judges Ken Williams and George Wood, Clallam County Superior Court Family Court Commissioner William Knebes,  Clallam County Commissioners Steve Tharinger and Mike Dougherty as well as the Clallam County Superior Court Clerk, Barbara Christiansen and County Administrator Jim Jones, Jr.

Also present was Stanley Bastian, President of the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors, WSBA Executive Director Paula Littlewood, former WSBA Board of Governer Presidents Ronald Ward and Dick Manning, former member of the WSBA Board of Governors Marcine Anderson, Superior Court Clerks Linde Clevenger and Diane Ralston, former Superior Court Clerk and campaign manager Eddie Beck, members of Judge Talyor’s former law firm, Platt, Irwin (and formerly Taylor), many of Clallam County’s lawyers, and numerous family, friends and supporters of Brooke Taylor.

Mark Baumann

ClallamCountyBar.com says congratulations to Mr. Taylor, and offers a hearty congratulations to Brent Basden, Curtis Johnson and Craig Miller for making the effort to keep our democracy robust.

As of 8:09 p.m. on 8/21/07, the unofficial tally’s are:

Brooke Taylor – 52.75% with 7,032 votes
Brent Basden - 22.73% with 3,031 votes
Curtis Johnson - 13.34% with 1,779
Craig Miller – 11.18% with 1,490 votes

If Brooke Taylor maintains more than 50% of the vote, state law mandates
that he will be the only candidate placed on the general election ballot.  The next count will be Friday August 24th by 4:30 p.m.. The election results will be final and certified on September 5th.

4.7 Brooke Taylor
3.7 Brent Basden
3.1 Curtis Johnson
3.1 Craig Miller

Click here to see a table of the result details: bar-poll-results-table.htm

This summer marks an historic election for Clallam County’s newly created position for a third Superior Court Judge (position #3). This position was authorized by an act of the state legislature last year. The first ballot will be in the primary election (August 21, 2007 this year) Unless one candidate obtains 51% or more of the vote, the top two candidates will run off in the November election.