Author Jimmy H. Copyright May 1998 – First North American Serial Rights. Readers are free to download and use this material as long as they receive no payment for the material and credit this site and this author as the source.

THE PROSECUTOR

by

Jimmy H.

The word out at the county jail was that you were "innocent until proven broke". Dave Dawson, the newly elected Mayor of Mukilteo, Washington was about to learn the truth behind that statement.

Dawson had been elected as Mayor in the small city of Mukilteo (population 1,472 situated on the shores of Puget Sound) on a "save the police force" platform. It seems that the Public Safety City Commissioner had been driving home one night after an extended business conference at the Yacht Club stag bar in the neighboring city of Everett. It was one of those "there is an imaginary line down this creek that divides Mukilteo from Everett" situations. As he was driving erratically the rookie cop of the three-man force followed him for a distance as he headed home. At an intersection where you could turn left into a dead end neighborhood or go right out to the city limits the Commissioner went left and the cop went right. The officer turned around at the city limits (the city covered one square-mile) and returned to the intersection where the Commissioner was waiting for him and flagged him down. The Commissioner said, "Do you know who I am?" The cop replied, "No, but I am about to find out. Give me your driver's license." When asked to perform a series of sobriety tests the Commissioner explained how important he was to the cop. As the police department fell under his jurisdiction their portion of the budget and the department welfare were at his mercy. The rookie had the audacity to complete the testing and ticket the Commissioner for driving while intoxicated. Then the Commissioner began working to have the Chief and the rookie fired. As the Mayor appointed the Chief and was a friend of the Commissioner both the Chief and the rookies jobs were in jeopardy. With elections fast approaching Dawson was convinced to run to save the Chief's job and to rid the city government of special considerations given to some of the city's old and elite families. With three candidates for Mayor, including a member of one of the old and elite families, Dawson won with a plurality of over 40%.

A city the size of Mukilteo could not afford a full time prosecutor so it contracted with the County Prosecutor's office to prosecute it's criminal cases. It also hired a City Attorney to provide legal guidance on non-criminal cases. The City Attorney was a part time position hired from a legal firm in Everett. The city paid a basic retainer for usual services and paid for special cases at an hourly rate. Dawson had appointed a new City Attorney when he took office because of improper connections between the former City Attorney and the old and elite families. The new City Attorney,

Lawrence Knight, was from the same firm as the previous one but young and idealistic.

About 9 months into Dawson's 4 year term he was standing at the counter in the City Hall when a scruffy individual came in and asked for the Police Chief. Dawson called the Chief, Bill Bryden, out and the individual asked for his knife back. Bill's response was, "You can't have it back." The man then questioned as to why and the chief told him, "Because if I hadn't been armed with a shot gun you would have used it on me when I arrested you in that house you were burglarizing!! It's evidence!! Now get out of here!!" Then Bill turned to Dawson and said, "I don't even have the report done and that piece of junk has been PR'd (released on his personal recognizance) already. I risk my life to go into a burglary in progress and the jail lets them out in a half hour with no bail." He then stormed back into his office. 30 days later Bill informed Dawson that the burglary had been plea bargained by the County Prosecutor down to illegal trespass and the burglar given 30 days in the county jail suspended.

As luck would have it that very night Dawson and the Chief Deputy Prosecutor, Andy Forsgren, were co-speakers at the Mukilteo Lions Club meeting. Forsgren spent his whole speaking time detailing how short handed their office was and how each attorney was overloaded to an unbelievable extent. How they had to have more attorneys to do their job properly. Dawson then spoke and reported how they covered the city for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with 3 full time officers and a reserve force. He also recounted the story of the burglary and the actions of the prosecutor’s office pointing out that they received extra funds from small cities to prosecute and that the small cities deserved to have good cases prosecuted not plea bargained down to nothing.

After the meeting Forsgren approached Dawson and said, "You know I can drive through your city over the speed limit and you cannot arrest me because I am a county prosecutor. I am held blameless in any prosecution that I perform. In other words I could destroy a man with the powers of this office. For instance, I could bring charges of sodomizing a minor against someone and make sure the papers got the story. I could continue to leak information to the press throughout the case. Just prior to trial I could then drop the prosecution due to the disappearance of the key witness. And so the man's reputation is destroyed by proper use of the news media. He can do nothing to me because I am held blameless by state law."

Dawson left the meeting and went home. There he took out his typewriter and started writing. He detailed, with the date and estimated times, the exact conversation with Forsgren. The next morning he went to his office and made copies of the document he had prepared the night before. He delivered the first copy to Bill, the police chief and told him of the event. Next he delivered a copy to Knight and described the events of the evening before. Knight said that he believed that Forsgren was wrong and that legal action could be taken against him if he attempted to fulfill his threat but that the reality of it was that he would have the funding available to him through the county while the only funding available to Dawson would be from his personal resources. Resources available to Dawson were a small business that he owned and operated, $50 a month salary as Mayor, and little savings.

Dawson had been working with an investigative reporter, Jim Hyde, from the Everett Tribune newspaper attempting to have an open hiring process for the Emergency Services Department of the county. Jim had blown open a story on that department reporting gross mismanagement of the funds and misuse by various officials. The County Commissioners then moved in rapidly to vacate the offices and fill them with political hacks that had supported them in their elections. Dawson as a member of the Emergency Services Council and Jim were working with other Emergency Services Council members to establish a job description and proper recruitment procedures for the new manager. Dawson took the third copy of his documentation about the conversation with Forsgren to Jim Hyde. Jim read it and said to Dawson, "If he tries it we will crucify him."

2 days later as he walked through the county courthouse to attend an Emergency Services Council meeting Forsgren stopped him and said, "There's other methods. You can't always be watching your back." Dawson continued to press the prosecutor's office for stiffer penalties for offenders and at the same time started to explore other avenues of prosecuting cases.

Complaints from citizens about the police coverage on the graveyard shift led Dawson to spend several nights exploring the city at different times. He discovered the sergeant, Duane Fischer who covered graveyards, was spending the greatest portion of his time at the junior high school cafeteria drinking coffee and talking with the janitors. Dawson contacted the Chief and told him to get Fischer out and about and spending more time on the road. Fischer continued to dog it and Dawson continued to pressure the Chief and Bill continued to pressure Fischer until he took a dive. Under the Law Enforcement and Firefighter's pension plan, as originally written, Fischer was able to take a disability for heart problems. To this he later added Social Security disability payments and then got a position as a part time dispatcher for the Everett fire department. Bill later said to Dawson, "I guess that will show him, huh?"

During the weeks that Dawson and Bill were trying to get Fischer to work Dawson opened his briefcase one day to put in some sales information and make a call to a customer. He noticed 2 Bayer aspirin cases in his brief case. He did not use Bayer aspirin and so opened them up to see what was in them. There were a variety of pills in both cases. There were pink pills, blue pills, and white pills both large and small. Dawson called Bill in and showed the cases and pills to him explaining how he had found them in his brief case. Bill took the pills to the drug task force and found out that they were all non-prescription illegal drugs. Dawson went to contacts he had in the Everett police department drug unit and told them what had happened showing them the drugs. The captain in charge of the unit laughed and said, “This is such an obvious set up that I would never buy it. Someone has loaded you up with one of every kind of common street drug. If I get any tips about you having drugs I will trace it back if I can to find it's origin. I would almost finger a cop for doing it. Have you been having problems with any of your officers?" Of course Dawson immediately thought of Fischer who when questioned denied any knowledge of the drugs or Dawson's brief case. Two days later Forsgren stepped in front of Dawson as he walked through the courthouse hallways and said nothing, he just grinned. Dawson shivered and noticed how Forsgren's eyes had no feeling in them. Almost like the eyes of a rattlesnake.

A year later Dawson's business was in trouble. He had been paying more attention to the city's business than to his own and he had to cut back on his employees. He decided that the building he owned was larger than he needed for his business as it's focus had changed. He let it be known that he would like to sell the building.

A man named Amos Skinner came to look at the building. He talked at great length with Dawson. They looked at it from all aspects to determine if it would be suitable for a restaurant and cocktail lounge. The building's location was ideal with a great view over the town, sound and islands. Its construction was heavy duty with a large warehouse area that could easily be divided into restaurant and lounge areas. There were several meetings with Amos. In the last meeting at Dawson's home he told Dawson how he had built another restaurant in Edmonds just 13 miles down the shore line. He also told how the mayor of Edmonds had been such a great help getting the necessary permits and variances needed to put in his restaurant. And coincidentally the mayor of Edmonds had even owned the building that Amos bought to remodel for his restaurant. He wondered if Dawson might not be able to do some of the footwork for him by getting some of the permits and variances for him. Dawson replied that he could not as that would be a conflict of interest with him being the mayor of Mukilteo. He pointed out to Amos that the law required any premises selling alcoholic beverages to be over 300 yards from any adjacent church and that this building fell within that distance from the Presbyterian church. If this were to be a restaurant that served alcohol he would have to request the church to sign off on a variance. Then Amos dropped the bombs! Maybe Dawson could help if Amos were to donate to Dawson's campaign fund. Dawson replied that it had only cost him less than $20 to campaign so he didn't need any donations. At that point Amos said, "Well then, maybe you and the wife would like a trip to Hawaii." This attempt at bribery infuriated Dawson to the point that he ordered Amos out of his home telling him to have no more contact. The next time he was in the courthouse Forsgren stopped him in the hallway and stated, "You lucked out that time but we're still looking at your history, maybe another time you weren't so ethical. There is plenty of room in our budget for money to investigate suspicious activities."

Fortunately that fall the electorate of Snohomish County saw fit to give Dawson a cherished gift. They elected a new Prosecuting Attorney who brought with him his own Chief Deputy Prosecutor to the office. Forsgren resigned rather than return to the working ranks of prosecutors and left the area for greener pastures. Through the next years Dawson was aware of one or two other counties in the state that had hired him for a prosecuting attorney and then he lost track of him. The memory of fighting a public budget and a prosecuting attorney who was out for revenge dimmed in his memory and was soon only rarely brought to mind.

15 years later Dawson opened his morning paper and read, "A Special Prosecutor has been appointed to investigate the President's campaign fund sources and management. Attorney Andrew J. Forsgren has had 24 years experience as the prosecuting attorney for various governmental agencies across the nation beginning in Washington State. He stated that he would spare no effort nor expense in determining if the President has broken any campaign laws and will investigate all major donors for conflict of interest."

The End