Up to 20 juvenile cases in Snohomish County, some involving sex crimes, could be dismissed because of an office romance.
The deputy prosecutor assigned to the cases started dating the cases’ probation officer back in November. Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe said he wasn't told about the relationship until just a few weeks ago, but didn't think it was a big deal.
“Someone's personal life and their romantic relationships are really their business unless it involves some kind of a supervisory relationship,” Roe said. “That wasn’t the case here.”
Defense attorneys disagreed. They said up to 20 cases involving the couple could be tainted and, if so, should be dismissed.
In court documents, defense attorneys argued the relationship poses an obvious conflict of interest saying "the probation officer assigned to give the court information as to what is appropriate punishment for the case is in a sexual relationship with the person in charge of prosecuting" it.
Roe said he reassigned the prosecutor as soon as he found out about the situation, out of an abundance of caution.
“There is absolutely no evidence that this ever did or ever would affect any cases or anybody doing their job,” Roe said. “I decided to disclose it anyway because that is what we do.”
A defense attorney countered, "The Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney's Office is biased and simply does not want to take the sexual misconduct of parties with power and authority over the liberty of defendants seriously."
A judge will likely decide in the coming weeks whether to dismiss any of the cases.
