"I'm Thrilled That You Were Hired": Port Angeles Attorney Wolfley Welcomes Commissioner Rimson
It didn’t take long for the Clallam County legal establishment to warmly welcome its newest judicial asset.
This afternoon during the Civil Ex Parte Calendar, attorney Kenneth Wolfley stepped up to the bench. Presiding over the court was Lorraine Rimson, the newly appointed Family Court Commissioner who officially took over the full-time docket just four days ago, on June 1.
After Commissioner Rimson signed Wolfley’s order of default, the attorney paused to offer a glowing, on-the-record endorsement.
“Congratulations,” Wolfley told the new Commissioner. “I’m thrilled that you were hired.”
Rimson smiled, appeared very happy, and thanked him.
To the casual observer, it might look like a standard professional courtesy. But for the vulnerable families relying on the local justice system, this cozy courtroom camaraderie is a glaring warning sign.
Siding With the System
This smiling exchange comes immediately on the heels of a massive administrative shakeup.
Rimson was selected to inherit a critical family law and juvenile docket left fractured by the unceremonious exit of disgraced former Commissioner Brian Parker in February.
While the public was owed a rigorous, transparent process to restore institutional trust, local leadership instead handed the bench to Rimson.
During her recent tenure as a substitute Commissioner Pro Tem, advocates and families frequently noted a deeply alarming pattern: a reputation for routinely siding with and supporting the perpetrators of abuse over the victims seeking protection.
For an independent attorney like Kenneth Wolfley, the installation of such a commissioner is apparently a welcome sight.
But Wolfley’s victory lap with the local judiciary doesn’t end with a smiling encounter on the ex parte calendar.
Public records reveal that the court establishment is wasting no time expanding the Wolfley footprint across the courthouse.
Gambling on Public Amnesia
Public court rosters reveal that less than 24 hours after his exchange with Commissioner Rimson, Kenneth Wolfley is scheduled to walk right back into the nexus of Clallam County’s judicial network.
Tomorrow morning—June 5, 2026, at 9:00 AM—Kenneth Wolfley is confirmed to appear in Courtroom 1.
He will be standing directly in front of Superior Court Judge Brent Basden.
The scheduling of tomorrow’s hearing serves as a stark reminder that the court appears to be operating under a bold assumption: that the public has completely forgotten about Judge Basden’s deep, historical entanglement with the Wolfley family.
A Multigenerational Alliance
The scheduling of tomorrow’s hearing is a calculated gamble on public amnesia. The local judiciary appears to be operating under the assumption that the community has completely forgotten the deep, lifelong ties connecting Judge Brent Basden to the Wolfley family.
Long before Basden assumed his seat on the Clallam County Superior Court bench, he and Lane Wolfley were intimate professional and personal allies, operating as partners in the private law firm Wolfley, Basden & Hansen.
Court records show that Basden didn’t just share an office space with Wolfley. He actively functioned as a legal shield to protect his close friend from public scandal and misconduct allegations.
This blending of personal loyalty and institutional shielding extended deep into their shared religious lives.
Basden served as the President of the Port Angeles LDS Stake, holding ultimate ecclesiastical authority over local congregations.
Despite the Washington State Bar Association handing Wolfley a three-year suspension for the sexual exploitation of a female client, Stake President Basden granted Wolfley a “free pass,” allowing the former bishop to serve for years as the ward Santa Claus, maintaining direct access to local families.
Today, Judge Basden appears to actively conceal the true depth of this historical entanglement.
His official LinkedIn resume retroactively scrubs Wolfley’s name entirely from his private practice history, rewriting his past employment as “Basden & Hansen, PLLC.”
Yet, while minimizing the relationship publicly, Basden has maximized it privately with public funds.
Since 2018, Basden has presided over a staggering 80 cases involving Wolfley, transforming a blatant conflict of interest into standard operating procedure.
This insider favoritism reached a critical peak when Basden handed his longtime business partner a premium, taxpayer-funded $250-an-hour defense contract in the Aaron Fisher case.
Now, the generational loop is complete.
Within 24 hours of celebrating the arrival of an abuse-lenient Family Court Commissioner, Lane’s son, Kenneth Wolfley, will walk directly into Courtroom 1 to argue a civil motion before his father’s historical clean-up partner.
Decades ago, Brent Basden used the local newspaper to publicly challenge the community to show him evidence of a “good ol’ boy” system operating in Clallam County.
Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM, that evidence will be staring him right in the face from his own civil calendar.