Judge Basden Appointed His Close Personal Friend to Represent Fisher in Upcoming Murder Trial

In a move raising questions about judicial impartiality and fiscal responsibility in Clallam County, Superior Court Judge Brent Basden personally appointed his longtime personal friend and former business partner, Lane Wolfley, to represent accused murderer, Aaron Fisher. The appointment comes with a taxpayer-funded price tag of $250 per hour.

Basden will also preside over the trial.

The contract arises after the Clallam Public Defender’s Office and subsequent conflict attorneys, including Alex Stalker and William Payne, were forced to withdraw from Fisher’s defense due to conflicts of interest. With the local conflict list exhausted, the decision fell to Judge Basden to hand-select counsel for the high-profile murder case.

Rather than seeking outside counsel from neighboring jurisdictions or utilizing standard rotation lists, Basden tapped Wolfley—a figure with whom he shares a significant personal and professional history. The $250 hourly rate stands in stark contrast to the flat-fee structures or lower hourly caps often imposed on standard public defense contracts in the region.

The Fisher Murder Case

The trial itself carries high stakes for the community. Aaron C. Fisher, 37, stands accused of Second Degree Murder in an alleged brutal beating of 70-year-old Richard G. Madeo. Prosecutors allege that in May 2025, Fisher assaulted Madeo at a Sequim Safeway fuel station, inflicting injuries that led to Madeo’s death two days later at Harborview Medical Center.

Fisher also faces separate charges involving the alleged possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a case which Wolfley has also been appointed to handle and which will trail the murder trial.

Pre-Trial Delays and “Missing Witnesses”

Since his appointment in late October, Wolfley has already successfully petitioned for delays. The trial, originally slated for mid-December, was pushed to January 26, 2026, after Wolfley argued he needed more time to prepare and hire a new investigator.

In a January 9 hearing, Wolfley expressed optimism about the new date but admitted his team is struggling to locate key witnesses, including a transient individual crucial to the defense theory. “It’d be hard for us to go to trial without [them],” Wolfley told the court, noting that he had used “every available means” to contact the individual.

Prosecutor Michele Devlin expressed frustration at the hearing, questioning Wolfley’s readiness and noting that the defense had yet to supply a witness list or respond to emails confirming subpoenas. Every hour of delay is another $250 billed to the county.

Questions of Ethics and Optics

Legal ethics experts warn that while judges often have discretion in appointing conflict counsel, appointing a close personal friend or former business partner can create an “appearance of impropriety” that undermines public faith in the justice system.

We recently reported on court contracts with Basden and Wolfley. In addition to the $250/hour Fisher contract, Wolfley is contracted by the Superior Court at $6,250/month. The superior court seems to have become a steady revenue stream for Basden’s former partner.

Wolfley’s Troubling History

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the appointment is not the friendship, but Wolfley’s documented history of professional misconduct—facts Judge Basden is undoubtedly aware of given their partnership during the relevant years.

The timeline of Wolfley’s professional troubles began publicly in late 2003. In a December commentary for the Peninsula Daily News, Wolfley described himself as “wounded” by “pernicious, filthy gossip” circulating in the community that accused him of “stealing money from my church” and being “involved in drug activity.”

While he adamantly denied the rumors, legal scrutiny soon followed. On February 10, 2004, the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team executed a search warrant on Wolfley’s office. The raid was part of an investigation into Wolfley’s client, Paul Pendergrass, a realtor accused of laundering money for a cocaine ring. Agents seized financial documents.

Wolfley’s reaction to the raid was public indignation. At the time, he told the Peninsula Daily News that the search was “bizarre” and “ridiculous,” attempting to portray it as police overreach.

However, the results of the investigation validated the scrutiny. Wolfley withdrew as counsel for Pendergrass, stating that “OPNET seemed intent on implicating him in a criminal conspiracy.”

Pendergrass pleaded guilty to three counts of money laundering in May 2005, admitting he had been “reckless” in accepting large sums of cash from the drug ring’s leader, Bernard “Pete” Barnes.

Court records and newspaper archives further reveal that Basden represented Barnes.

Following the money laundering scandal, Wolfley faced a severe disciplinary reckoning from the Washington State Bar Association in 2005. The Bar suspended Wolfley from the practice of law for three years following a “formal complaint” and a finding of “sufficient evidence of unethical behavior.”

The Bar Association Disciplinary Board found that Wolfley had “knowingly and intentionally made sexual advances” toward a client during a personal injury case. The Board’s findings were explicit: Wolfley “kissed...fondled her, touched her breasts, touched her buttocks, and/or put hands inside her clothing.”

When confronted, Wolfley “knowingly and intentionally provided false information” to the Bar Association, testifying falsely that the events never happened.

His reinstatement was conditional on attending “Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous” meetings and undergoing independent psychiatric evaluation.

It is critical to note that during most of this period—the money laundering investigation, the office raid, the sexual exploitation of a client, and the subsequent suspension—Basden was Wolfley’s partner.

Despite this record of exploiting a vulnerable client, lying to regulators, and entanglement in a money-laundering investigation, Judge Basden has entrusted Wolfley with the defense of a high-stakes murder trial—and the public purse.

Wolfley’s Controversial Business Partner Prior to Basden

Prior to forming a business partnership with Basden, Lane Wolfley was a law partner with the now-retired attorney Theodore “Ted” Ripley.

On February 1, 1989, the Clallam County Sheriff’s office executed a warrant and arrested Ripley on charges of second-degree statutory rape. Ripley was accused of sexually molesting a blind, 12-year-old Guatemalan girl living in his home.

Wolfley vigorously defended Ripley in public. In a Peninsula Daily News article, Wolfley attempted to minimize the allegations, stating, “I’ve known about the allegations concerning the children for quite some time.”

The prosecutor, David Bruneau alleged in court papers a disturbing set of allegations, stating that the girl had told investigators that Ripley sexually abused her about 10 to 15 times prior to the January 1988 incident.

Although the case was dismissed because the victim became unable to testify, the prosecutor noted that statements by multiple victims and abusers showed a pattern of sexual activity which “certainly tends to corroborate the continuing disclosures by the victim.”

Records show that the judge was hesitant to dismiss the case, and the judge initially refused to sign the dismissal order presented by Bruneau.

Other Connections

The connection between Judge Basden and Lane Wolfley appears to extend far beyond their former law partnership and personal friendship, reaching deep into the hierarchy of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a relationship that raises uncomfortable questions about Basden’s willingness to overlook serious misconduct by his friend.

Basden formerly served as President of the Port Angeles Stake, a high-ranking ecclesiastical position giving him significant oversight over local congregations.

During this same era, Wolfley, a former Bishop—despite describing himself as a “non-believer” and “ex-Mormon” for decades —maintained a prominent and sensitive position within the church.

We uncovered thousands of Reddit posts created by Lane Wolfley. Here is a direct link to Wolfley’s Reddit profile. We have also archived the Reddit posts, in case they are later removed from the internet. Wolfley identifies himself as the Reddit user in the two posts below, which were originally created four years and four months ago.

In one post, in a discussion about trauma, Wolfley, identifying himself as a retired trial attorney, called repressed memories of child sexual abuse “fantastical and so harmful.” He advised one user to “sue the hell out of this therapist” for implanting “false child sexual abuse” memories.

In addition, some of Wolfley’s writings disturbingly normalize sexual exploitation by authority figures. In one post, discussing the sexual predation of Joseph Smith, Wolfley writes: “Every charismatic prophet of every religion will have sex with multiples of his followers given time and opportunity. No exceptions; JS was just one of many, they all do it.”

This is disturbing coming from someone suspended for sexually exploiting a client. It suggests he may view such behavior not as an aberration, but as an inevitable consequence of power—a “perk” of being a “charismatic” leader.

In another post, Wolfley surprisingly boasts of a 45-year tenure as the church Santa, claiming, “They won’t replace me because I’m so dang good at it.” He notes that his performance is the main draw for the event, stating, “It’s at the party that everyone shows up... the two wards in the building now show up together to keep things full.”

This arrangement suggests a troubling leniency on the part of Basden as a church leader, considering Wolfley was suspended from the practice of law after the Washington State Bar Association found he had “knowingly and intentionally made sexual advances” toward a female client, including fondling her and placing his hands inside her clothing.

Despite this public documentation of sexual misconduct and predatory behavior, Basden—who held the highest leadership authority during much of this period—allowed Wolfley to continue serving in a role that gave him direct access to children and families.

Wolfley himself remarked on the oddity of his “free pass,” writing, “I wonder from time to time why I get the free pass on this stuff… I just learned early on to do what I want and ask forgiveness later, which probably terrorizes my loved ones from time to time…”

Basden’s history with Wolfley establishes a long-standing precedent: whether acting as a Stake President supervising a holiday party or a Superior Court Judge overseeing a murder trial, Basden has repeatedly chosen to empower Wolfley, ignoring “conduct concerns” that would disqualify almost anyone else.

Is Basden Hiding His Relationship With Wolfley?

Despite the flow of public funds, Basden appears to hide his deep ties to Wolfley. For instance, Basden’s Linkedin profile does not disclose his relationship with Wolfley, and he specifically leaves Wolfley’s name off of the firm name, only mentioning “Basden & Hansen.”

Through the Internet Archive, we recovered an announcement from the early 2000s in the Peninsula Daily news, where Basden is listed as “an attorney with Wolfley, Basden & Hansen.”

By retroactively scrubbing Wolfley’s name from his resume while simultaneously awarding him no-bid, hourly contracts, Basden creates an optical dissonance: minimizing their past entanglement publicly, while maximizing it privately with taxpayer money.

A Crisis of Confidence

Court records reveal that since 2018, Basden has presided over a staggering 80 cases involving Wolfley, turning a blatant conflict of interest into standard operating procedure.

Basden’s decision to hand the high-stakes Fisher defense to Wolfley represents a total collapse of judicial norms. In bypassing standard protocols to appoint a former business partner —one with a documented history of sexual predation and lying to the Bar —Basden has prioritized personal loyalty over public safety. With taxpayers footing the bill at a premium of $250 an hour, the community is forced to confront an ugly reality: the Clallam County Superior Court appears less interested in dispensing justice than in sustaining the income of the Judge’s friends.

In a 2002 Commentary, written by Basden in the Peninsula Daily News, Basden defends this type of “’good ol’ boy justice.”

Basden defended the Superior Court, stating, “These are good and honorable men and women.”

Then, he apparently challenged the public, writing, “I look forward to hearing the evidence or a denunciation of the attack.”

In a Commentary written by Basden a few months later, Basden defends what the public perceived as controversial conduct, writing, “if this conduct is unethical, then our county’s two Superior Court judges, along with most of the judges... are unethical.”

Two decades later, it appears not much has changed in Clallam County Superior Court.