Clallam County Court Hiding Records Involving Former Drug Court Coordinator Johnny Watts

As the public demands answers regarding why an armed, alleged fentanyl and meth distributor was previously employed as the Clallam County Drug Court Coordinator, the Court Administration has decided on a strategy of absolute secrecy.

In a blatant refusal of transparency, the Clallam County Superior Court is aggressively withholding years of communications between Johnny Watts, the former Adult and Juvenile Drug Court Coordinator, and Brent Basden, who was Watt’s boss.

The Recusal and the Blindspot

The staggering scale of Watts’s alleged criminal enterprise was brought to light earlier this month following a standoff in Agnew and a subsequent raid that uncovered a massive local drug distribution network.

Watts, who has a highly documented history of violence, was entrusted with immense authority over vulnerable populations by the Clallam County court system. He is now out on a $250,000 bond, awaiting trial on felony charges.

Because of Watts’s deep integration into the court’s daily operations, the entire Clallam County Superior Court bench was forced to recuse itself from his criminal proceedings.

However, recusal does not erase the history of his employment, nor does it answer the critical questions of who oversaw his daily activities, how he was vetted, and what the judges knew about his behavior.

A Categorical Blackout

To pierce this veil, we submitted a records request to the Court on March 23, 2026. Our request sought a basic element of public oversight: emails between Brent Basden and Johnny Watts from 2018 to 2024.

On the morning of Friday, March 27, Superior Court Administrator Lacey Halberg summarily shut down the inquiry without turning over a single document.

“Any such records are categorically exempt under GR 31.1 as chambers records, and therefore are not subject to disclosure and production,” Halberg wrote, citing the state rule that governs access to administrative records.

She then abruptly attempted to terminate all further inquiry, stating: “This is the final communication you will receive in connection with this request.”

Stonewalling the Law

Halberg anchored her denial in GR 31.1, the state court rule governing administrative records. Yet, this blanket refusal attempts to bypass a well-established legal standard.

In Washington state, the Public Records Act provides the guiding framework for GR 31.1, demanding a much higher threshold of transparency than a categorical dismissal.

By law, agencies are generally required to conduct an actual search for the documents before claiming specific exemptions—a procedural safeguard designed to prevent the exact type of blanket secrecy the court is currently employing.

Categorically declaring that all emails spanning a six-year period between a judge and a county employee are automatically exempt “chambers records”—without acknowledging if a search even occurred—is a highly aggressive interpretation of the law designed to shield the court from scrutiny.

When the Olympic Herald pushed back on Friday morning, asking Halberg to clarify whether the court had actually searched for the emails or had simply predetermined a blanket exemption to hide the communications, the court’s administration stonewalled.

“The Court has fully responded to your records request and considers this matter closed,” Halberg replied.

A Crisis of Accountability

The Clallam County Superior Court is currently reeling from a crisis of accountability. While Judge Basden faces a separate, formal investigation by the Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding allegations of bias and conflicts of interest, the Watts scandal represents a catastrophic failure of the court’s administrative and vetting protocols.

By refusing to release the communications between the tax-payer funded supervisor, of a man now accused of flooding the Olympic Peninsula with fentanyl and meth, the Clallam County Superior Court is sending a clear message to the public: protecting the institution from embarrassment takes precedence over transparency and public safety.