Giving Up The Ghost

What comes to mind about the first day of the trial is that the ghost of Ted Anderson still haunts the County, or at least it haunts A.O. Denny, Assistant Prosecutor. The County's lawyer conveys the same sense of bitter, angry, disdain for the skrælings* of Guemes Island that Ted so often displayed. I can even see, if the courtroom light is right, wisps of the same dark cloud that perpetually hung over Ted's head--the upriver crown of contempt.

A.O. Denny, a thin, intense man who wears wire rim glasses, sports badges of former battles. Behind his ears are two hearing aids, and on his left middle finger is a white, three-inch sock.

The County's plan is clear from the outset. A.O. Denny intends to challenge every detail of the evidence and testimony presented by the Friends of Guemes Island. He has to because the County erred in its preparation of its Declaration of Non-Siginificance for the ferry's extended runs, and the County failed to consider any environmental impacts that might result from the added commuter runs. Those lapses are against the law, and so A.O. Denny's strategy is to attack minutiae in hopes that the big story will somehow be obfuscated.

A.O. Denny doesn't waste any time in attacking the standing of FGI's first witness, Gary Davis, President of Friends of Guemes Island. For reasons obscure even to Judge Allendoerfer, A.O. Denny moves to have Gary removed from the courtroom. I presume this denied request was staged to set the proper tone of imperiousness for the County.

Glen Veal is FGI's next witness. Glen is there to introduce evidence that the County erred in preparing its DNS. He has Public Works data that prove the error in Steve Cox's DNS assertion that the County regularly ran up to five post-six p.m. overload ferries to collect the "100-car" lineups Cox alleged happened frequently, and which purported demand is served by the late ferries. A.O. Denny appears desperate to block this evidence, so he objects to its introduction as hearsay. Judge Allendoerfer overrules. Glen testifies that the data show that from 2004 through 2006 not only were there no fifth overload runs, but no fourth, nor even a third on the records the County provided to the Coast Guard.

The rest of the information provided in the DNS is now suspect, and Steve Cox, who has been sitting behind me groaning and making muffled explosive sounds, relaxes somewhat and starts to read a Star Wars dog-eared paperback. He knows that he won't be asked to testify against his own department's statistics. Later in the day A.O. Denny releases him at chapter four in his paperback and tells him to go home and not bother to show up tomorrow.

The next line of defense for A.O. Denny is a line of landmines and barbed wire laid to keep FGI's expert witness, Barbara Rudge, from crossing. She has written a 28-page report (below) detailing the probable environmental impacts of the later ferry hours on Guemes Island. In spite of several bursts of objections A.O. Denny fires at the judge, his aim and ammunition are inadequate to stop Barbara from beginning a three-hour testimony. A few times A.O. Denny stands to protest the hearsay nature of Barbara's evidence, but it's too late, and he can only make a desultory show of appearing to inspect her maps and tables for official stamps. Her evidence by and large is admitted.

A.O. Denny's case starts on Friday after he cross examines Barbara Rudge. The trial is expected to end on Friday [June 8] with a decision likely to be rendered next week.

My reading of the judge is that he is concerned with the County's failure to follow state environmental law, and A.O. Denny has not provided, nor is likely to provide, any evidence that the County studied the environmental impacts of extending the ferry hours. Therefore, Judge Allendoerfer will probably find that the County has to do an EIS. It's hard to read whether the decision will also stop the late ferries. This is shaky ground for a Superior Court judge, and it would require overruling the authority of the Skagit County Commissioners to legislate. I am sorry I will miss Friday's discussion of the reasons why Allendoerfer should be so bold.

- Commentary by Tim Rosenhan, [6.9.7]

The trial concluded Friday afternoon, June 8. A.O. Denny called no witnesses and offered no defense. Judge Allendoerfer will announce his decision Friday, June 15, 2007 at 1:30 pm, Snohomish County Courthouse, 3000 Rockefeller (in downtown Everett), on the 5th Floor, Department 9.

*Skræling is the name the Norse Greenlanders gave to the Thule people they encountered in Greenland. Tim says, "wretches, savages or barbarians or possibly pygmies such as gnomes and trolls."

In previous episodes

Report prepared for June 7 hearing in Superior Court:

Land Use Impacts of the Guemes Island Ferry Schedule Extension [424kb PDF]

Skagit County's Filings:

DNS [252kb PDF] • DNS Addendum [384kb PDF]

Environmental Checklist [2.4mb PDF] • Environmental Checklist Addendum [3.4mb PDF]