Seattle Judge gets busted for using carpool parking without an actual carpool
Ah the political season is upon us. Especially in King County where there are several municipal and district court level judicial elections that are are becoming hot topics here in Seattle. One such race is in the Seattle Municipal Court between long time incumbent Judge Fred Bonner and his challenger former defense attorney Damon Shadid. While thinking of topics for this blog I came across this article from a local television station back in late August.
Apparently KIRO 7 News here in Seattle conducted a 3 month stakeout of Judge Bonner driving from his home to work. Seems like a strange stakeout, right? Well according to the news station I guess Judge Bonner for the past 10 years or so has been receiving a discounted parking rate in a City of Seattle parking garage. Saving him about $12k over the last decade in parking fees.
During this stakeout KIRO News 7 watched him drive himself to work and not have any passengers in his vehicle. When approached by the reporter the Judge said he has had passengers and just didn’t have any for the past few weeks or so. Regardless this made news headlines here in Seattle and now some are questioning this particular Judge’s character to continue to sit on the bench and here misdemeanor cases including many DUI arrests in Seattle.
Politics are a dirty business. This is one of the most contested races here in Seattle. Makes you wonder who tipped off the press regarding this piece of information. At the bottom of the article it states very clearly it was not the challenger Damon Shadid.
Anyway should be an interesting race, stay tuned for my political news and fallout from these Judicial elections here in King County. Here is the article in case you want to read it.
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About the author: Matthew Leyba is a DUI Lawyer in Seattle, WA. He has been repeatedly recognized as a Rising Star in the field of DUI Defense by both the Seattle Met Magazine, and the Super Lawyers Magazine. He is also rated a perfect 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com and listed as a Superb DUI lawyer in Seattle.