{"id":3953990,"date":"2024-03-07T11:58:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T19:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/?p=3953990"},"modified":"2024-03-07T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T20:26:07","slug":"gee-ursula-should-judges-be-elected-or-appointed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3953990\/gee-ursula-should-judges-be-elected-or-appointed\/","title":{"rendered":"Gee &#038; Ursula: Should judges be elected or appointed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s an age-old question: Should judges be elected or appointed? Gee &amp; Ursula took on the topic after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/law-justice\/seattle-city-attorneys-office-bars-judge-from-hearing-criminal-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Seattle Times<\/a> reported the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattle.gov\/cityattorney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Seattle City Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a> doesn\u2019t want any future criminal cases to be heard by first-term <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattle.gov\/courts\/about\/seattle-municipal-court-judges\/honorable-pooja-vaddadi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The office detailed mounting concerns about Vaddadi\u2019s conduct and rulings from the bench that have prevented the city from receiving fair hearings and trials, according to a memo sent to assistant city attorneys last week obtained by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/law-justice\/seattle-city-attorneys-office-bars-judge-from-hearing-criminal-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Seattle Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/shows.audiocdn.com\/s\/bonneville\/highlights-the-gee-scott-c31982\/should-judges-be-elected-e029fe\/embed\/standard-horizontal\/v2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"173\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So now essentially, this judge is not going to be able to handle arraignments, pretrial hearings or trials for new cases,&#8221; Ursula Reutin explained. &#8220;Even though the courts are already stretched. So these cases are going to have to be assigned to other judges and fillings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>City Attorney doesn&#8217;t have confidence in Vadaddi<\/h3>\n<p>Vaddadi is a former public defender who was elected to the bench after defeating the incumbents in Nov. 2022. The problem is the City Attorney&#8217;s Office claimed that she has routinely overruled other judges&#8217; findings of probable cause to arrest a suspect or do a search and she has also repeatedly failed to find probable cause in cases where it clearly exists.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In other words, they think she is incompetent and doesn&#8217;t understand the law,&#8221; Ursula said. &#8220;It looks like The Seattle Times tried to reach out to this particular judge, but I don&#8217;t think that she is responding to comments for requests.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>More Gee &amp; Ursula:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3944605\/never-ending-debate-if-seattle-freeze-is-real\/\">The never-ending debate about if the \u2018Seattle Freeze\u2019 is real<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Therefore, Gee and Ursula said the Vaddadi case begs the question: Should judges be elected or appointed? In the Vaddadi case, she beat the incumbent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now I just ask anyone filling out ballots, &#8216;Do you even know anything about the judges you&#8217;re being asked to vote on?'&#8221; Ursula said.<\/p>\n<h3>How much information do we have about judges?<\/h3>\n<p>Gee said many times he voted based on a rating from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcba.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">King County Bar Association.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to realize that is just one source,&#8221; Gee said. &#8220;But again, in the case of a judge like this, I would say this makes a great case for having judges appointed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ursula said she felt judges should initially be appointed by an independent commission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But then I think they should be voted on so people can just say, &#8216;Hey, are you doing a good job or not?'&#8221; Ursula said. &#8220;I think that would be the best compromise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3893257\/gee-ursula-discuss-the-rules-of-the-skies-for-passengers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gee &amp; Ursula discuss the rules of the skies for airline passengers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although Gee said he does his due diligence by reading up on the judge in the pamphlet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t know this judge from anywhere. And I make my decision on this pamphlet,&#8221; Gee said. &#8220;That&#8217;s very little info.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gee explained that he&#8217;s clear on the topic. He wants judges to be appointed.<\/p>\n<p><em>Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/category\/podcast_results\/?sid=1183&amp;n=The%20Gee%20and%20Ursula%20Show\"><em>podcast here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":25,"protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":3605318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[65775,66089],"tags":[35136],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gee &amp; Ursula: Should judges be elected or appointed?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gee &amp; Ursula take on an age-old question: Should judges be elected or appointed? 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