{"id":5144,"date":"2011-02-25T18:43:13","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T02:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2011-02-25T18:47:55","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T02:47:55","slug":"guest-column-proposed-coroners-inquest-should-deeply-worry-lewis-county-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5144","title":{"rendered":"Guest column: Proposed coroner’s inquest should deeply worry Lewis County citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Royce Ferguson
\nAttorney at Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been reported that\u00a0recently-elected Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod wants to shed light on the manner of Ronda Reynolds’ death by having all the facts presented by impartial people, so the manner of her death may finally be decided by reasonable jurors (who, Mr. McLeod apparently believes,\u00a0cannot be found among\u00a0Lewis County residents).\u00a0Recall that the former coroner refused to change Ronda’s death certificate from suicide, despite a\u00a0 Lewis County jury verdict<\/a> which declared that\u00a0the death was not suicide.<\/p>\n

To this end, Coroner McLeod has announced<\/a> that he’s appointed Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel as his deputy coroner, to\u00a0convene six jurors in Clark County, to hear evidence selected and presented by Lewis County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney J.\u00a0David Fine.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, rather than Lewis County citizens being comforted, the proposed inquest should deeply worry them (and will also cost them an estimated $50,000).<\/p>\n

How can it fairly be said that the proposed inquest, conducted outside the scrutiny of Lewis County citizens, will be fair and impartial?\u00a0Or that it will instill confidence in the conduct of Lewis\u00a0 County officials?<\/p>\n

While I\u00a0am the attorney representing Barbara Thompson in her legal quest for the truth in this case, the facts speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

The court record is clear that Lewis County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Fine has\u00a0battled\u00a0Thompson in court for years, and that he has fought all her attempts to present any evidence of homicide to\u00a0any court or any jury.<\/p>\n

I am not saying or suggesting that Mr. Fine is doing anything unlawful or unethical,\u00a0as court ethical rules do not\u00a0govern\u00a0coroner inquests.\u00a0Yet, common sense and impartiality should govern both, particularly when searching for truth.<\/p>\n

Below\u00a0are some of the instances where Mr. Fine was fighting Thompson in court, and thus, fighting any notion of homicide and fighting to keep any evidence of murder from ever being presented to a jury:<\/p>\n

July 14, 2008: See former Coroner Wilson’s written response to Thompson’s brief for judicial review, signed\u00a0by attorneys John Justice and J. David Fine, both\u00a0as attorneys for Wilson.<\/p>\n

Sept. 19, 2008: See hearing transcript before Judge Richard Hicks wherein both attorneys Justice and Fine appear for Wilson, and Justice introduces Mr. Fine as “co-counsel” and then Fine actively argues against Thompson’s case.<\/p>\n

Dec. 16, 2008: See written motion filed solely by Mr. Fine as attorney for Wilson to start an emergency appeal to stop Thompson’s case.<\/p>\n

Jan. 9, 2009: See Judge Hicks’ ruling on the motion denying the emergency appeal, wherein the judge states in part, “The coroner, represented by Mr. Fine of the prosecuting attorney’s office, after this court denied their motion to dismiss based essentially on jurisdiction grounds, has now asked for certification (to set up an emergency appeal to stop Barb’s case) . . . ”\u00a0 Judge Hicks denied the request for emergency appeal.<\/p>\n

May 15, 2009: See the transcript of hearing before Judge Hicks on Wilson’s request, presented and argued by Mr. Fine, that former Coroner Wilson be excused from the upcoming Lewis County jury trial on judicial review.\u00a0(It should be noted that Mr. Wilson could have easily presented all the evidence he wanted in Lewis County, but elected to not do so, probably\u00a0after consulting with\u00a0his attorney.\u00a0It may be fairly argued that Mr. Wilson’s lawyers were trying to obtain a court order to relieve him from\u00a0 having to appear\u00a0before the Lewis County jury\u00a0to listen to all the evidence,\u00a0even if he didn’t want to present his own).<\/p>\n

Sept. 29, 2009: Mr. Wilson was deposed and his testimony taken under oath.\u00a0While Mr. Justice\u00a0is noted as Wilson’s attorney, Mr.\u00a0Fine is noted as the attorney “for the county” (even though Lewis County was not and is not a party to the court proceedings).<\/p>\n

Can the citizens of Lewis County rest assured that the secluded coroner’s inquest, as presently proposed, will be impartial when a county\u00a0official – who for years has actively resisted even the suggestion of homicide – is advising, controlling and presenting the selected\u00a0evidence?<\/p>\n

While Mr. Fine may have been acting zealously within the law in defending former Coroner Wilson in court, should not Coroner McLeod reconsider\u00a0by whom\u00a0evidence will be controlled, filtered, selected, considered and presented at his short inquest?<\/p>\n

There are genuine concerns\u00a0about Coroner\u00a0McLeod’s claim that he wants to shed light on Ronda’s death.\u00a0I have discussed one.<\/p>\n

Another concern\u00a0is the evidence or lack of evidence that will be purposely presented or omitted in the four days presently allotted for the inquest.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Royce Ferguson, an Everett lawyer, represents Ronda Reynolds’ mother in the civil case Barbara Thompson v. Terry L. Wilson, Lewis County Coroner, which was filed Aug. 18, 2006 in Lewis County Superior Court and resulted in the Nov. 2009 judicial review heard by a jury in Lewis County. The outcome is currently being appealed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Royce Ferguson Attorney at Law It has been reported that\u00a0recently-elected Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod wants to shed light on the manner of Ronda Reynolds’ death by having all the facts presented by impartial people, so the manner of her death may finally be decided by reasonable jurors (who, Mr. McLeod apparently believes,\u00a0cannot be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5149,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions\/5149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}