A Vancouver protection lawyer pleaded not responsible Thursday to 2 counts of forgery after a choose declined to dismiss the case primarily based on the protection’s allegations of mismanagement and a biased investigation.
Lewis County Superior Court docket Choose Joely Yeager once more instructed Josephine Townsend that she would deal with her case the identical approach she would deal with another case. She sympathized with the impacts the allegations have had on Townsend’s profession.
In the end, Yeager stated the problems Townsend’s protection attorneys raised with the case in the course of the two-hour listening to had been arguments they may make to a jury at trial. She stated the protection attorneys’ arguments didn’t present proof of governmental misconduct.
Townsend, 65, is accused of altering paperwork associated to a civil safety order towards her consumer, Travon Santiago.
Townsend’s Camas-based attorneys, Vern McCray and Roxana Manesh, stated the Clark County sheriff’s detective who investigated the case ignored the motivation for Santiago and his girlfriend to misinform deputies in regards to the origin of the allegedly cast court docket order. As a substitute, Manesh stated, the detective sought to “nail (Townsend) to the wall.”
Manesh stated the detective didn’t search additional proof of the place the doc got here from earlier than it was placed on the flash drive, proof that she stated may have revealed the forger. Now, months since detectives started investigating, Manesh stated that proof has probably been destroyed and “might as well be on the bottom of the ocean.”
Assistant Legal professional Normal Jaime Taft, who’s prosecuting the case on the request of the Clark County Prosecuting Legal professional’s Workplace, argued there was no proof to help the case’s dismissal.
She stated search warrants are presupposed to be slim and particular to guard individuals’s proper to privateness. She stated the detective didn’t have any data to recommend that Santiago’s girlfriend had a pc for investigators to look. She additionally stated Townsend’s protection crew had supplied no proof that the couple have destroyed proof because the investigation started.
After the choose denied the movement to dismiss, Yeager moved ahead with arraignment and set Townsend’s trial for the week of July 14.
Incident
Santiago was arrested in December 2023 on suspicion of first-degree assault, and a choose ordered a prison safety order, in addition to GPS monitoring, prohibiting Santiago from coming inside 1,000 toes of the sufferer. The sufferer’s companion additionally filed for a civil safety order towards Santiago. The civil safety order was issued in January 2024 and restricted Santiago from coming inside 5,000 toes of her, in keeping with court docket data.
In April, a choose modified the gap restriction within the prison safety order to 500 toes. Deputies realized Santiago’s condominium was roughly 1,000 toes from the sufferer’s dwelling. However, they stated the civil safety order prohibiting Santiago from coming inside 5,000 toes of the sufferer’s companion was by no means modified, court docket data state.
On July 17, deputies responded to a 911 name from the sufferer’s companion reporting a violation of the civil safety order. When deputies accessed the net GPS monitoring system, they noticed Santiago was at his condominium, which was in violation of the 5,000-foot restriction, court docket data state.
When deputies went to the condominium, Santiago’s girlfriend offered them with a doc that claimed the safety order had been modified. However deputies stated the case quantity on the doc was for the prison case, not the civil order they had been there to implement, in keeping with court docket data. Deputies stated Santiago’s girlfriend was on the telephone with somebody they realized to be Townsend, Santiago’s lawyer.
The deputies left the condominium.
Santiago’s girlfriend later referred to as the sheriff’s workplace. She instructed a sergeant that Townsend had despatched her an order displaying the safety order had been modified. She forwarded the order to the sergeant, which deputies famous was dated April 25 and now had the right case quantity for the civil safety order. They stated it additionally had Clark County Superior Court docket Choose Suzan Clark’s digital signature — with the identical time stamp, right down to the second, because the modified prison safety order — together with the clerk’s workplace’s e-filing stamp, in keeping with court docket data.