{"id":933,"date":"2010-07-23T09:27:56","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T16:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=933"},"modified":"2010-07-23T09:27:56","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T16:27:56","slug":"notes-from-behind-the-news-dont-thumb-your-nose-at-a-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=933","title":{"rendered":"Notes from behind the news: Don’t thumb your nose at a judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wish I could tell you more about Karen Kristine Sudderth.<\/p>\n

She’s the woman who was sentenced this week in connection with taking her young son out of the country – years ago – allegedly hiding him from his father.<\/p>\n

During about 30 minutes of proceedings on Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court, I learned the gist of the case, but not enough to write a news story.<\/p>\n

I didn’t cover her trial in June, which ended in a hung jury. And I didn’t read through her court file.<\/p>\n

But I’ll offer a small snapshot of what I did learn listening to lengthy, detailed and even passionate discourse from attorneys, and brief but telling comments from the defendant and Judge Nelson Hunt:<\/p>\n

Disobey a court order at your own peril, and if you want to address the judge, take the opportunity when it’s offered to you.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor and the defense attorney put together a plea agreement in exchange for not attempting a second trial.<\/p>\n

Sudderth pleaded guilty Wednesday to a gross misdemeanor to avoid the possibility of a felony conviction. Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher and Tacoma attorney Bryan Hershman asked the judge for a 30-day sentence and for his blessing it could be fulfilled with house arrest.<\/p>\n

It was a so-called Alford plea, meaning she didn’t actually admit guilt.<\/p>\n

Local attorney Paul Dugaw addressed the court on behalf of Sudderth’s former husband. He called the deprivation of a father’s right to see his child grow into an adult a travesty. Her actions were egregious, he said.<\/p>\n

“Ms. Sudderth made a calculated decision to flaunt the orders of the court,” Dugaw said.<\/p>\n

An order for her arrest warrant was filed in January 1997. She was brought to court last October.<\/p>\n

After Dugaw sat down, Judge Hunt was blunt.<\/p>\n

She will be locked up for three months (specifically 88 days), no electronic home monitoring, and “jail starts now,” the judge pronounced.<\/p>\n

“I have a very similar view as he has expressed,” Hunt said, referring to the father’s lawyer. “We can’t have people saying, I’m going to flaunt the law, thumb my nose at the court for 15 years, and then come back and get 30 days in jail.”<\/p>\n

Hunt noted he didn’t give Sudderth the maximum sentence, and if I understood him correctly, that had to do with choosing an amount of time less than what she would have gotten if she were convicted of the higher charge.<\/p>\n

Her attorney Hershman asked Hunt: She has pets in her apartment, may we start that in two days?<\/p>\n

Hunt: No we may not.<\/p>\n

Sudderth – who had previously answered each of the judge’s inquiries to her with “Yes, your honor”,\u00a0 except for when he asked her before sentencing if there was anything she would like to say – stood up.<\/p>\n

She waited.<\/p>\n

I have to paraphrase here, but just a a little bit.<\/p>\n

Sudderth: Your honor?<\/p>\n

Hunt: What?<\/p>\n

Sudderth: May I address the court?<\/p>\n

Hunt: No.<\/p>\n

She remains standing.<\/p>\n

Hunt: You had your opportunity. There’s nothing you can say. The corrections officers are here for you now.<\/p>\n

“Just sit down.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter I wish I could tell you more about Karen Kristine Sudderth. She’s the woman who was sentenced this week in connection with taking her young son out of the country – years ago – allegedly hiding him from his father. During about 30 minutes of proceedings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-commentary","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}