Justice Thurston County style

A year ago my family was the victim of a series of increasingly aggressive actions. It started with creepy notes, my tires were slashed multiple times, our teenaged daughter stalked for months, and an attempt was made to set my car on fire.

The good news is that the Olympia police caught this person, and you would think that the arrest would have been the end of it, but after a few days in jail our assailant has been free to roam the county for the past year while the case crawls through some mysteriously endless process at Superior Court without an end in sight.

I’ve asked how long this should take and apparently no one knows – it’s not tracked, think maybe you can complain to the judges and let them know that you are tired of delays and would like them to stop grant continuances? Nope sorry, you don’t get to communicate directly with them. How about a letter or e-mail to the County Prosecutor? Yeah, apparently Mr. Tunheim doesn’t accept direct communication regarding cases. Think perhaps the County Commissioners might be willing to assist . . . yeah not so much.

What happened a year ago to my family made me pretty mad, but waiting for over a year to have this case resolved, and actually prosecuted makes my blood boil. We need to take a critical look at how cases are processed, it should not take a year.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Justice Thurston County style."