Updated 9:28 a.m. on Thursday May 24, 2012
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
An appeals court has tossed out a felony conviction of a family practice doctor’s wife, saying the evidence was insufficient to prove Janna Wooten committed first-degree malicious mischief.
Wooten and her husband Dr. David Wooten were charged in 2008, after Dennis Kohl instigated a sheriff’s office investigation, saying the Wootens were his tenants and they trashed his house on Hadaller Road near Mossyrock before they moved out.
The decision filed yesterday by the state of Washington Court of Appeals Division II states that Lewis County prosecutors failed to show an unfinished remodeling project resulted in any damage to the property interest of another.
Kohl found the home with most of the sheetrock removed, only one functional bathroom and filled with garbage, according to three-judge panel.
Prosecutor’s arguments and theory were based on a misunderstanding of real property law, according to the decision.
The appeals court judges wrote that Kohl claimed the Wootens were leasing with an option to buy and prosecutors agreed, despite evidence provided at trial that showed otherwise.
The Wootens were both put on trial but the decision only relates to the wife’s case, according to the three-judge panel.
The couple moved way from Lewis County after state health officials reinstated the doctor’s license with strict conditions that prevented him from prescribing narcotics and restricted his dealings with female patients. His practice was in Chehalis.
Centralia attorney Peter Tiller filed the appeal for Janna Wooten. Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh argued for the state.
The unpublished opinion states David Wooten’s medical practice purchased the home before Janna Wooten married him.
He and his business partner Robert Miller signed a real estate contract and a residential purchase and sales agreement but were never given a deed and the seller Kohl never recorded either document, according to the opinion.
The judges wrote that after Kohl sold the house to Wooten Primary Care, Kohl borrowed $325,000 against house from an unidentified lender without telling the Wootens, then stopped making payments on the loan he took out.
Kohl continued collecting payments from the Wootens until December 2007.
The Wooten’s were evicted by Kohl’s lender.
There was no evidence in the record the unfinished remodeling project resulted in a loss to anyone, other than the Wootens, according to the appeals court.
Beigh from the prosecutor’s office said David Wooten appealed his conviction as well, but an opinion has not yet been issued in his case.
“I would expect that decision anytime, but you never can tell,” she said.
Once she receives paperwork from the appeals court, Beigh expects to summon Janna Wooten into Lewis County Superior Court and dismiss the case.
If she doesn’t show up, Beigh said, she will probably just dismiss it anyhow and not pursue it further.
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See State of Washington, Respondent V Janna L. Wooten, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter