Former Clallam County Drug Court Coordinator Johnny F. Watts Jr. remains scheduled for trial February 1, 2027, on federal drug and firearm charges. Watts has pleaded not guilty to one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm.

Carl King, a Sequim man facing charges involving child sexual abuse material, remains scheduled to stand trial February 22, 2027, in Clallam County Superior Court. Under an August 28 scheduling order signed by Judge Elizabeth Stanley, the four-day trial is set to begin at 9 a.m. A status

Clallam County Superior Court Judge Simon Barnhart is enforcing a restriction I believe is unjustified and obstructs public scrutiny: the court will process my records requests in a queue, only one at a time.  I have made a total of seven requests this year, working full time as a journalist

Clallam County Superior Court Judge Simon Barnhart dismissed the second-degree rape charge against former Sequim police officer Christian Whitaker on Monday, finding prosecutors had not produced sufficient evidence independent of Whitaker’s statements to establish the charged crime. The order dismisses the rape count with prejudice. It applies only

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Cadine Ferguson-Brown is scheduled to rule on November 6, 2026 on a former Edmonds College instructor’s bid to dismiss child sex charges over an NCIS agent’s role in the undercover investigation. Houston Wade, 45, of Bainbridge Island, was arrested Dec. 17, 2025.

A 38-year-old Port Angeles woman faces five felony charges after detectives alleged she secretly photographed two girls and sent the images to Tyrone Robert Tokarczyk, the man charged last month in a related child exploitation investigation. Clallam County prosecutors charged Kelsie Yvonne Soehngen in Superior Court on October

The Port Angeles School District released the final installment of records requested by The Olympic Herald last week, providing emails documenting school board member Nancy Hamilton’s exchanges with district leaders and fellow directors. To make that correspondence easier to access, I built a tool for viewing and searching these

Chelan County Public Utility District No. 1 complied with state requirements for its 2024–2025 energy conservation target, according to a Washington State Auditor’s Office report released yesterday. Auditors examined whether the district properly developed and adopted its 23,389-megawatt-hour conservation target and acquired sufficient energy savings

The Washington Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed Chelan County Superior Court Judge Kristin Ferrera’s dismissal of a civil conspiracy claim arising from a mosquito control dispute, also overturning attorney fees and sanctions imposed against the woman who brought the lawsuit. The unanimous October 1 decision allows Andrea Walheim

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Virginia Mason Medical Center violated patient protections by privately communicating with three of its former physicians who had participated in a patient’s surgery. The court ordered a trial judge to reconsider the remedy for those contacts, which occurred without the patient’s

A Port Hadlock man was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years and three months in prison for the April 2025 robbery of Kitsap Bank in Sequim. Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brent Basden imposed the 171-month sentence after Dale Jaff, 59, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, three counts of

Wenatchee listed about $34 million in federal expenditures under the wrong grant program in its 2025 reporting, according to a state audit published September 30, 2026. A similar error in the city’s 2024 reporting left the correct federal program untested until auditors performed a subsequent audit. The Washington State

Mason County understated cash in its external investment pool fund by nearly $14 million and overstated cash in its custodial fund by the same amount after failing to fully report investment transactions, according to a Washington State Auditor’s Office report. The errors did not change the combined ending cash

The Washington Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Chelan County judge’s decision denying resentencing for Lisa Ann Dugan, ruling that four later felony convictions would leave her sentencing range unchanged even after four invalidated drug-possession convictions were removed. The unanimous decision rejected Dugan’s argument that she

The Port Angeles School District is asking a judge to dismiss Director Nancy Hamilton’s lawsuit challenging a censure resolution that makes certain information requests from elected directors subject to approval by the full board, while denying that it silenced her. In an answer filed September 23 in Clallam County

A Forks man was sentenced to 90 days in jail and a year of community custody Thursday after pleading guilty to assaulting and threatening a law enforcement officer. Gabino Escalante Cruz, 32, pleaded guilty on September 24 in Clallam County Superior Court to third-degree assault of a law enforcement

The Housing Authority of Chelan County and the City of Wenatchee lacked records showing it followed up on life-threatening deficiencies in federally subsidized rental housing within required deadlines, according to a state audit published September 24, 2026. Auditors reviewed a statistical sample of 12 failed inspections from 2025. In

A 39-year-old Port Angeles man faces four felony charges after investigators alleged he secretly photographed a 16-year-old girl in a shower and shared explicit images of minors through the messaging service Kik. Clallam County prosecutors charged Tyrone Robert Tokarczyk in Superior Court on September 18 with

A new fraud investigation by the Washington State Auditor’s Office questions thousands of dollars in travel expenses incurred by two Port Angeles public agencies while Steve Burke served as a port commissioner and the William Shore Memorial Pool District’s executive director. The report, published Thursday, September 24, 2026,

A federal judge has ruled for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and two related church corporations in a sexual abuse survivor’s negligence lawsuit, concluding that her allegations did not establish a legal duty to protect her from her adoptive father’s abuse outside church activities

Two speakers pressed the Quillayute Valley School Board on student safety Tuesday. Sharon Millett questioned how the district treats people who raise concerns, while Shannon Gaydeski renewed a demand to retract its statement about the Kari Larson lawsuit. The board offered no substantive public response to their criticism during the