Two incumbent Superior Court judges challenged for re-election; 11 running unopposed

May 10—Every four years, the entirety of the Spokane County Superior Court bench is up for election.

Often, not a single judge is challenged, but this year, three people are running against Judge Timothy Fennessy.

Two of his challengers, F. Dayle Andersen and Andrew Van Winkle, say Fennessy's courtroom demeanor is not fit for the bench.

The third challenger, Jerry Scharosch, said he filed because he was under the impression Fennessy was not running for re-election.

Also facing an election opponent is Judge Marla Polin, who will face attorney Brandon Casey, who said he believes judges should have an array of legal experiences to serve on the bench and that the goal of serving the public is getting lost in today's system.

The other 11 sitting Superior Court judges who filed for re-election will not face a challenger.

The Spokane County Superior Court bench has undergone significant changes with half of the judges having been appointed to their seats by Gov. Jay Inslee in the past five years.

Judges Dean Chuang, Breean Beggs, Jeremy Schmidt, Polin and Jacquelyn High-Edwards have all been appointed since 2022.

Demeanor complaints vs Experience

Initially, Fennessy, 66, decided not to run for a third term and told his colleagues of his plans.

One of Fennessy's campaign promises when he ran against and unseated Judge Greg Sypolt in 2016 was that he would not resign midterm, a common practice among Spokane Superior Court judges that allows the governor to appoint a replacement.

But, Fennessy said, some of his colleagues on the bench approached him about running again, fearing losing his experience on an already inexperienced bench. Fennessy's colleagues elected him to a two-year term as presiding judge last year.

"I feel like I still have experience that is valuable and important for our bench to have," he said.

He decided to file for re-election and did so on Thursday.

Andersen, 59, said he chose to run for the judgeship because he feels Fennessy's demeanor on the bench is inappropriate.

"I felt that I could provide a better opportunity for attorneys to have a judge who is hopefully going to listen and would provide the judicial courtesy that one would expect," Andersen said.

He called Fennessy "rude" and said that he does not appear to listen to attorneys' arguments.

Andersen has been an attorney for 31 years, practicing in Idaho at Washington. Most of his career he was a trial attorney doing criminal defense and handling personal injury claims.

After the pandemic, Andersen closed his private practice and took at job at the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office, where he worked for two years.

Van Winkle echoed Andersen's concerns. He chose to run against Fennessy specifically because people in the legal community often complain about his demeanor. Van Winkle said he has not had a case before Fennessy.

He noted that prosecutors routinely disqualify Fennessy from presiding over sex crimes cases.

Van Winkle, 35, who is the senior staff attorney at the Washington State Court of Appeals Division III, also said he sees Fennessy's decisions in his work.

"I see his work at the court of appeals," Van Winkle said. "The short answer is I'm not a fan of what I see."

With a rise in people representing themselves in court, Van Winkle said if elected he hopes to work on solutions to make their experience in the system better. He suggested an online interactive form system for civil protection orders that allows people to also submit evidence and answer foundational questions.

Fennessy acknowledged that he has been removed from domestic violence cases by one unit of the prosecutor's office.

"It's their right to do that," Fennessy said. "I have never had anyone explain to me the rationale."

Fennessy said he also hasn't heard complaints about his demeanor.

"I don't feel that I have a demeanor problem," Fennessy said. "I feel like one of the tools the judge has is to make sure that he or she is asking good questions and that is particularly true when someone is represented."

He said it's up to voters to decide that validity of that criticism.

Fennessy was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2019 for taking more time than permitted by state law to decide two cases. He was required to affirm to the commission every three months that he had no pending decisions beyond 90 days.

Current court commissioner Scharosch said he did not intend to file against a sitting judge but now that he has filed, he'll stay in the race.

"I still think that I would make a good Superior Court judge and that my experience and my demeanor qualify me for a Superior Court position," Scharosch said.

Scharosch, 49, has been an attorney since 2007. He did civil litigation at a local law firm before spending six years at the Washington State Attorney General's office representing Child Protective Services and the Department of Corrections.

He worked as a Spokane County Prosecutor, largely in the special assault unit, from 2019 until 2023 when he was appointed as a court commissioner.

"I think that experience matters and I have over 15 years practicing in Spokane County Superior Court and my legal background is very diverse," Scharosch said.

In judicial elections, if a candidate in the primary receives more than 50% of the vote, they essentially win the election, with only their name appearing on the general election ballot.

If there are three or more candidates in a primary and no one receives more than half the vote, then the two candidates with the most votes in the primary will face each other in the general election.

Polin challenged

Local attorney Brandon Casey filed against Judge Polin on Thursday.

Casey, 50, said he wants to be a judge to serve the public. For years, he has wanted attorneys with a breadth of experience, especially in civil matters, to run for office. When a friend brought up Casey running a few months ago, he knew he had to step up to the plate, he said.

He took a less used path to the legal practice, completing a law clerk program with his father, J. Gregory Casey, rather than going to law school. Casey passed the bar in 2004 and has worked with his father ever since at Casey Law Offices.

Casey said he has handled a variety of cases from personal injury to civil rights.

If elected, Casey said he would try to speed up pretrial exchange of information and come in early and stay late to hear motions so trials could move more quickly.

"It's torture for most people, I think," he said of how long cases are pending.

Casey chose to run against Polin because he said she lacks the variety of legal experience that is ideal for the position. Casey said that while Polin is qualified, his experience handling of a variety of civil cases is what's needed on the bench right now when most judges have been appointed through public service roles.

Polin, 44, was appointed to fill the seat left when Judge Harold Clark III retired in 2022. She ran unopposed in 2023.

After graduating from Gonzaga School of Law in 2005, Polin did criminal defense work in Spokane before turning to civil commitment work.

From 2012 until her appointment, Polin was contracted by the state to represent sex offenders in their civil commitment trials, allowing her to appear in courts across the state.

She said the civil commitment cases are also quasicriminal, giving her a good grasp of both types of law.

In her nearly two years as a judge, Polin said she has fallen in love with the role and how she is able to serve the community.

"I can tell you I have never worked so hard in my life. I was an unbelievably hard-working trial attorney — this is on a whole different level," Polin said.

"It's something you really don't understand until you have that experience."

Polin touted her experience as an attorney and as a judge as making her the most-qualified candidate in the race. Over the last two years, Polin said she has handled complex family law cases and juvenile cases along with criminal and civil matters.

"I've really gotten to experience everything on the bench," Polin said. "That is something that he simply cannot compete with."