Superior Court Judge Michael A. Hecht wants the criminal case against him tried outside Pierce County, contending in court documents that “the Tacoma News Tribune has deliberately poisoned” his right to a fair trial here.
The newspaper’s executive editor and chief editorial writer on Tuesday stood by The News Tribune’s coverage of Hecht.
The judge’s attorney, Wayne Fricke of Tacoma, filed a request for change of venue Friday. Hecht is to go to trial June 8 at the County-City Building in downtown Tacoma on one charge of felony harassment and one misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute.
The state Attorney General’s Office alleges Hecht exchanged cash for sex with one young man a number of times during the past year and threatened to kill another in downtown Tacoma last summer.
The judge has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied the charges through Fricke.
King County Superior Court Judge James Cayce is presiding over the case so Hecht’s colleagues on the Pierce County bench can avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Assistant state attorney general John Hillman, who is prosecuting Hecht, said Tuesday that he plans to oppose the change-of-venue motion and two others filed by Fricke, including one to dismiss the prostitution charge.
Hillman declined to elaborate on his positions. He has until Friday to file formal responses with the court. A hearing on the three motions has yet to be scheduled.
OPINION VS. FACT
Fricke contends in his motion that coverage of Hecht’s case has been so intense, “biased” and “inflammatory” that his client cannot get a fair trial in Tacoma.
“Unlike most cases, the public has now been saturated with potential trial testimony as well as the local newspaper’s opinion delving into the facts of the case as well as the local newspaper’s views on Judge Hecht personally,” wrote Fricke, who attached several News Tribune articles, editorials and a guest column on the case to his motion.
“Additionally, editorials have gone beyond reporting the case, in effect demanding that Judge Hecht respond to the accusations and implicitly (if not expressly) suggesting he is guilty.”
His motion did not make mention of a suitable alternative county.
PAPER RESPONDS
The News Tribune’s chief editorial writer, Patrick O’Callahan, said the newspaper’s editorials on Hecht never suggested the judge should resign or be convicted, only that he should stop hearing cases until the criminal charges against him are resolved.
“That seems like common sense to me, not a ‘deliberate’ poisoning of his right to a fair trial,” O’Callahan said. “This opinion section has a responsibility to serve as a watchdog on government officials, including Michael Hecht. If we had ignored such serious criminal and ethical accusations, we would have abdicated that responsibility.”
Executive Editor Karen Peterson said The News Tribune’s news stories have been “thorough and factual” and “based on our own extensive reporting and investigations done by city and state agencies.”
“It will be up to a judge to decide the venue for this trial and up to a jury to determine Judge Hecht’s guilt or innocence, but we will continue to cover this story up to and through the scheduled trial,” Peterson said.
WITNESS CHANGES STORY
In his other motions, Fricke contends the count charging the judge with patronizing a prostitute should be dismissed because the young man who told Tacoma police and The News Tribune that he’d exchanged cash for sex with Hecht since has changed his account.
Joseph Pfeiffer now says in a declaration submitted as part of the judge’s defense that he received cash from Hecht on a number of occasions and had sex with him but that the cash wasn’t payment for the sex.
That undercuts the state’s case to the point that the charge should be dismissed, Fricke wrote.
Failing that, Fricke has asked that the two charges be tried separately, arguing that trying them together unfairly prejudices Hecht.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime
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