By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
The Washington Supreme Court found petitions to recall the county’s prosecuting attorney and three commissioners to be “frivolous” in a unanimous decision issued Oct. 15, and ordered the petitioners to pay $5 million in sanctions.
The petitioners sought to recall Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Weyrich, County Commissioners Peter Browning and Ron Wesen and former Commissioner Lisa Janicki, alleging defects in oaths they did not file.
Specifically, the petitioners allege the prosecuting attorney and the commissioners had to do something about three judges, a district court commissioner and two deputy prosecuting attorneys who allegedly did not file their oaths before performing their duties, charges that the judges found legally and factually insufficient.
“No law makes an elected official answerable for when and whether a different public servant properly files their oath,” the Supreme Court found.
The petitioners include Cody Hart, Derrill Fussell and Timothy Garrison, who are respectively running as sheriff, coroner and treasurer, and Larry Jensen, Kathy LaFreniere, and Kevin Ewing.
“These charges were part of a coordinated effort to harass and do not sufficiently charge that any alleged oath filing defect vacated an office, invalidated official acts, or caused a loss of public funds,” reads the opinion.
The Supreme Court also upheld the trial court’s orders sanctioning Hart, Jensen, Fussell, Rindal, LaFreniere, and Ewing a total of $5,348.22.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter at La Conner Community News.
