By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey made clear he wants to hold a hearing on convicted triple murderer John Allen Booth Jr.’s allegations of eavesdropping by the state on Lewis County Jail inmates and wants his attorneys to have the benefit of all the materials they are seeking to present the issue.
“I want to go through the entire process because when we do have a hearing, I want all the information available,” Brosey said in court yesterday.
[1]John A. Booth Jr.
Court assigned defense attorney Erik Kupka and his office partner David Mistashkin were in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday afternoon asking for an order that prosecutors turn over certain documents.
Kupka called the issue a constitutional matter, the remedy for which could be a new trial.
Booth is serving a life sentence following his December 2011 conviction in the shooting deaths the year before of David West Sr., 52; his son David “D.J.” West Jr., 16; and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle. West Sr.’s live-in girlfriend Denise Salts was shot in the face but survived. Prosecutors said the slayings in the Onalaska-Salkum area home came about because Booth and his former cell mate were “taxing” West Sr. on behalf of Lewis County drug dealer Robbie Russell.
Booth denies he shot them. Booth didn’t attend yesterday’s hearing.
The proceedings relate to Booth’s motion to vacate his judgement and sentence which he filed late last year from Walla Walla State Penitentiary. It alleges governmental misconduct and the state’s infringement of his right to counsel.
His main contention is law enforcement officers listened from outside the jail’s row of visiting rooms while he consulted with his attorneys, rooms in which people almost had to yell back and forth to be heard through the transparent partitions.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked the court yesterday to rule against the pair of defense attorneys.
“In any stretch of the imagination, there is no legal authority for what they request,” Meagher said.
Brosey agreed the information they sought was not possessed by prosecutors, but by the jail, and advised them to continue pursuing the documents through public records requests. Kupka and Mistashkin said they’ve been doing that, but the pages have ben heavily redacted.
Kupka was appointed by Brosey in late January to represent Booth on his self-filed motion. Brosey presided over the Dec. 2011 trial.
Kupka and Mistashkin told the judge they still have not been able to get a hold of copies of material from the case from the lawyer who represented Booth during his trial. Meagher offered to share with them everything he turned over to the previous attorney.
Brosey noted more than once it was troubling to him the defense attorney, Roger Hunko, never raised the privacy issue as a problem during the trial.
“I don’t think there’s anything in the record that occurred,” he said.
The attorneys, who work in Grays Harbor County, have an appointment set to interview Booth in Walla Walla on Sept. 26.
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For background, read “Ear hustling”: Convicted murderer John Booth tells judge about problems at Lewis County Jail” from Friday July 5, 2013, here [2]