Distortions, lies drive commissioner's vote against addition of sixth county judge

Rick Dahl puts right-wing false narratives ahead of county’s need for swifter justice

This coluimn has been edited to reflect the impact of court backlogs on children.

You may know by now that the Cowlitz County commissioners last week declined to seek a sixth Superior Court judge — a move that would save the county money and speed the administration of justice.

But you probably don’t know about the illogical thinking and distorted understanding of the law,  facts and the January 6 Capitol riots that led to Commissioner Rick Dahl’s decision to oppose the addition of a new justice.

He acknowledged that the county’s court system is staffed by good people, but he said he wants to make a point about the “weaponization” of the higher echelons of the justice system. In effect, he’s willing to hold the county’s justice needs hostage to make a political point driven by his warped, radical-right take of the U.S. justice system.

"As a man of faith, I can’t walk with things that I think are evil,” he said in a Facebook post.

Grrrrr. Little riles me more than using religion to claim moral and policy supremacy or suggest that those with different views are less holy.

Dahl, a Republican elected last November,  joined fellow commissioner Arne Mortensen in the decision. 

Cowlitz County has five elected Superior Court judges, with the fifth position created in 2012.  Judges hear civil and felony criminal cases as well as matters related to probate, adoption, juvenile justice, guardianships and mental health.

The state pays half of Superior Court  judges’ $160,000 annual salary and the cost of all their benefits. The county would save $48,000 annually by hiring a sixth judge because it could eliminate a 3/4 time court commissioner position, which pays $114,000 and which the county finances in full. Court commissioners, who are unelected, can handle a variety of matters but are not allowed to preside over trials.

The state Administrator of the Courts office says the County’s Superior Court caseload warrants adding two additional justices — a sixth and seventh — due to its population and caseloads. It made that recommendation years ago.

Since then,  Cowlitz County Superior Court caseloads have actually declined in recent years, according to state figures. 

In  the years around 2012, case filings generally exceeded 6,000 annually. They numbered  4,500 in 2022 and averaged 4,600 for three out of the last four years (I excluded 2020, the pandemic year, when they fell to about 3,300.) 

Still, the backlog of unresolved cases is growing at about 10% a year, particularly of civil cases, said Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor. A sixth judge would help clear that glut, he said.

Delays are especially concerning in civl cases, which are pushed back more frequently because criminal cases are subject to constitutional \ “speedy trial” requirements. This often means that divorces, family disputes and child custody cases get kicked back. In cases where families are in crisis, justice delayed truly is justice denied, and it makes Dahl’s opposition especiallhy hard-hearted.

Some of court’s decline in criminal filings is due to the pandemic and the Blake decision, which eventually led the Legislature to reduce drug possession cases to misdemeanors. Possession cases are handled in  district court and usually move through the system quickly. Superior  Court, however, still handles felony drug trafficking cases, which are more complex and take longer to resolve, Bashor said.

He believes a sixth judge could be added without needing to hire extra staff, a concern Mortensen expressed. County taxpayers would get a new judge largely at state expense, Bashor points out.

Dahl and Mortensen make the sophomoric assertion that taxpayer money is still taxpayer money, regardless of whether it comes from the state or county. True enough. But local citizens also have a right to get back some of the taxes they pay into the state. 

However, judging from his Facebook post, most of Dahl’s opposition springs principally from ideological concerns, not financial ones.

He claims “to have a lot of respect” for judges and staff in the local justice system, but then he wants to deny them help to clear a backlog of cases and make the administration of justice less costly and swifter for local citizens.

He complains that the governor would appoint the new judge, asserting that the selection process is a political decision that violates the separation of powers doctrine.

Under the Washington Constitution, governors appoint vacant superior court judge positions.  The political nature of the process is diluted somewhat because governors typically consider recommendations of local bar associations, though they are not bound by them. And judges ultimately must stand for election. Furthermore,  the vast majority of county superior court rulings and cases are decided on laws and facts and seldom involve political judgments.

I suspect Dahl just wants to prevent Gov. Jay Inslee, a liberal Democrat, from appointing the sixth judge. So I’ll ask, how did he feel about President Trump’s selection of U.S. Supreme Court Judge Amy Comey Barrett, who was an obvious “political appointment” due to her advocacy of the controversial “originalist” interpretation of the U.S. Constitution?

Also in a constitutional vein, Dahl objects to what he considers the Legislature’s usurpation of judicial power.  Without citing specifics, he said lawmakers are “adjudicating from the legislative branch,” leaving judges with diminished discretion. 

Well, it is conservatives like Dahl who have long complained about the opposite concern — that judges too often “make” law through their decisions and interpretations instead of just applying the law. Some restrictions on judges — such as sentencing guidelines — are meant to make justice more fair, equal and consistent. And, to remind everyone of the obvious, it is the Legislature’s job to make laws, including those that govern the meting out of justice.

Finally, Dahl cites what he calls “an evil cancer spreading through the whole justice system” — and that justice is unequal and weaponized.

“We had people walking through our national Capitol (on Jan. 6, 2021). Yeah, they weren’t supposed to be there. But they had security escort as they walked through,  and we still have people sitting in jail for that.” He asserted that the participants have been jailed “without due process.”

Our first-year commissioner has gulped the Trumpian false narrative by the kegful. So he believes the Jan. 6 protestors were nonviolent? That they didn’t call for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence? That they didn’t trash congressional offices and that they didn’t clash ferociously with the Capitol police?  That no shred of credible evidence of widespread election fraud has ever emerged and that — for the most part — the people who defended the electoral process were Republicans?

And does Dahl not remember that the protestors are sitting in jail after standing trial or pleading guilty in court? They certainly were not deprived of due process. They were not visitors or Capitol tourists. They were thugs who are getting the justice they deserve.

It’s distressing and alarming that our county commissioner would deny obvious facts that have former President Trump facing four different criminal  trials, including those for allegedly trying to upend the 2020 election, instigating the January 6 Capitol riot, and refusing to return classified documents after leaving office.

In claiming that justice has been “weaponized” and unequal, Dahl noted that rioters who looted and burned American cities following the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police (he didn’t specifically mention Floyd) have largely gone unpunished. He laments that Hunter Biden has not been jailed and that President Joe Biden himself had classified documents stored in his garage without consequences.

I don’t have space here to rebut, refute or bring perspectives to these assertions, some of which are  based on downright lies and distortions. What’s more important here is that these matters have nothing at all to do with whether Cowlitz County needs a sixth Superior Court judge. The local court system is run with integrity, as Dahl himself acknowledged.

“What I said today is on moral grounds. l can’t approve this. As a man of faith I cannot walk with things that I see as evil.  This is not a bash on our judges or our people in Cowlitz County,” Dahl said.

Perhaps not. But his vote makes their job harder. And it’s another disturbing reminder that our board of commissioners is controlled by politically driven ideologues who ignore facts and embrace gross distortions of history and logic.

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