Seven candidates vying for District Court appointment

MONTESANO — Seven potential candidates have emerged for the Grays Harbor District Court judge seat vacated by Judge Stephen Brown when he moved to Superior Court last month.

Interviews with the county commissioners responsible for the appointment process could be set up as early as next week.

The candidates include former Grays Harbor deputy prosecutor Andrea Vingo, family law attorney Britton Buckley, criminal defense attorney David Mistachkin, Aberdeen deputy city attorney Forest Worgum III, defense attorney Kyle Imler, former Aberdeen municipal judge Paul Conroy and Acting Prosecutor Gerald Fuller. Fuller will make way for Katie Svoboda when she is sworn in next month, and has already given notice that he’ll retire from the Prosecutor’s Office at the end of the year.

The judge candidate names were recently released to the Grays Harbor Bar Association, which will release a non-binding ranked listing of preferred candidates in the coming days, according to County Commissioner Wes Cormier.

The commissioners have yet to meet to go over the applications, but have taken turns to look over the material, Cormier said Thursday.

Cormier said interviews could potentially be held on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14, but those dates are still tentative. Since the appointment is for an elected position, the interviews would be done in public.

The application material, which includes a laundry list of questions on candidate backgrounds, is exempt from public disclosure because the judgeship is a county position under state law. Once the appointment is made, the application is releasable, subject to redactions, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

A breakdown of the candidates show that in the past five years, Fuller, Imler and Worgum have spent their time in criminal law. Buckley spent the time in family law, mostly appearing in state cases. Mistachkin spent the time doing criminal, civil and family law. The other candidates have split their time between criminal and civil law.

Fuller has the most experience, working 40 years as an attorney, followed by Imler with 30 years, 21 years by Buckley, 20 years by Conroy, 17 years by Vingo, 11 years by Mistachkin and 10 years by Worgum.

Conroy was Aberdeen’s Municipal Court judge until December of 2013 when Mayor Bill Simpson chose not to reappoint him to the post. The city was sued over alleged sexual harrassment by Conroy toward the city’s former court administrator. The case was resolved in May of the same year, with the city paying the former court administrator a nearly $600,000 settlement. As part of the settlement, neither the city nor Conroy admitted any wrongdoing.

“I strongly disagree with the plaintiff’s claims,” Conroy said at the time of the settlement.

The next District Court judge won’t have to run for election to retain the seat until 2016. Brown will have to run in 2015 to retain the Superior Court seat he took over from retired judge Gordon Godfrey.

Brown has already been sworn into office, but a special swearing-in ceremony will take place 3:30 p.m. Monday with State Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara A. Madsen as the officiant. Light refreshments and cake will follow the swearing in. The ceremony takes place at Grays Harbor Superior Court, 102 W. Broadway, 3rd Floor, Department 1, Montesano.