MOUNT VERNON — A Skagit County judge likely will decide whether a Gold Bar blogger can attempt to recall Snohomish County’s elected prosecutor.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Skagit County Superior Court to determine whether Anne Block’s latest effort to recall Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe is legally justified. It won’t be clear until the hearing how soon the judge will rule.
Block made a failed attempt to recall Roe last year. This time, she’s claiming the prosecutor engaged in misfeasance in responding to a federal lawsuit she’s brought against the county, the city of Gold Bar and several current and former government employees.
In her recall petition, Block contends Roe ignored the law when his office agreed to spend up to $15,000 on outside legal counsel to represent Kevin Hulten, an aide to Aaron Reardon, the former county executive.
Block filed the federal case in early 2014, citing, in part, Hulten’s online harassment of her and others. She twice attempted to recall Reardon when he was county executive and wrote numerous unflattering blog posts about him.
Reardon resigned after The Daily Herald unmasked Hulten as the person using the spoof identity “Edmond Thomas” and other pseudonyms to make a series of public records requests and to set up web pages attacking people he perceived as the executive’s enemies.
Roe and others in the prosecutors office were among Hulten’s targets.
After his online activity was revealed, Hulten insisted he was a government whistleblower attempting to ferret out corruption. An independent attorney determined his claims were baseless. Hulten resigned after investigations turned up sexually explicit images on the county computers he had been using — plus a hidden trove of records documenting years of politically motivated misdeeds done on Reardon’s behalf on county time.
Hulten in July was sentenced to five days on a Skagit County work crew after he pleaded guilty to evidence tampering. He loaded a data-wiping program onto a county-owned computer before it could be examined by a King County sheriff’s detective who, in 2013, was investigating Hulten’s “Edmond Thomas” activities.
In recall pleadings, Block maintains Roe misused taxpayer money in providing Hulten with an attorney at public expense.
In court papers, Roe said he was disinclined to provide Hulten with an attorney to fight Block’s lawsuit, but, when asked, decided to have San Juan County Prosecutor Randall Gaylord make the decision.
“I have personal feelings about Mr. Hulten’s actions, how they impacted me, other officials and employees in the county, and distracted the county’s focus away from more important issues,” Roe said in court papers. “His actions brought shame and embarrassment on the reputation of Snohomish County.”
Gaylord reviewed records, spoke with Hulten and determined that at this stage of Block’s case the former Reardon aide is entitled to defense at county expense.
That could change, Gaylord wrote in court papers, “in the event that facts are later discovered or a judge rules during the lawsuit or any related action that Mr. Hulten was not acting, or purportedly acting, within the scope of his duties as a county employee.”
An assistant state attorney general requested Thursday’s hearing, which is required before a recall can be brought.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews
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