Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
City of Othello to handle its own misdemeanors
RITZVILLE – Effective Jan. 1, Adams County will no long prosecute misdemeanor cases from the city of Othello.
The Adams County Commission announced Thursday, July 14, the it will not renew or extend the current contract with Othello with a “substantial change in circumstances.”
In a press release announcing the decision, commissioners said, the County deeply regrets that the contractual relationship between the two entities has become hostile, untenable and irreconcilable.”
The county cited a number of reasons why it will no longer prosecute the city misdemeanor cases, including nuisance lawsuits filed by Othello employees, the lack or inability of city officials to curtail the litigious environment and city employee’s “constant barrage of public records requests” intended to “harass and deflect county officials from performing their primary duties…”
Continued contractual prosecution of city misdemeanors has “increasingly resulted more often in negative impacts to county services and public safety than in positive outcomes, the press release said.
Prosecuting Attorney Randy Flyckt said the change will mean that the city of Othello will have to take care of its statutory responsibility to provide its own prosecutorial services.
The county has been providing those services to Othello for “some time,” he said.
“They will just have to do them on their own instead of the county doing it for them,” Flyckt said, noting the city has 8,000 residents and the ability to handle its own misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor cases arising from arrests by city police.
“They are not a little, bitty town,” he said. “They certainly have the resources. It’s time for them to handle those (misdemeanors).”
Flyckt pointed out that the city of Ritzville is much smaller, yet it prosecutes its own cases, as does the city of Colfax in adjacent Whitman County.
“The city of Ritzville, as mall as it is, has its own city prosecutor,” he said.
The change will free up resources needed for cases arising in unincorporated areas, Flyckt said, noting the population growth in the panhandle outside of the city of Othello has spawned a growth in court cases.
“We really have plenty of cases to keep us busy,” he said.
The change will enhance the ability to prosecute cases county-wide, he said, noting the Adams County District Court will continue to operate in both Ritzville and Othello.
“We have no intention of decreasing services,” he said.
Roger Harnack is owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. An award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher who grew up in Eastern Washington, he's one of only two Washington state journalists ever to receive the international Golden Quill for editorial/commentary writing. Roger is committed to preserving local media, and along with it, a local voice for Eastern Washington.
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