Ex-Tacoma council candidate Hill sentenced for intimidating judge

For the next year or so, the voyages of Robert Jesse “The Traveller” Hill will be limited by prison walls.

Hill, 41, a local activist, frequent arrestee and occasional candidate for public office, was sentenced Friday to 16 months in prison for intimidating a judge. He’d been found guilty at an earlier bench trial that ended Jan. 12.

The charge stemmed from a September 2011 incident involving Tacoma Municipal Court Commissioner Randy Hansen. At the time, Hill was facing an assault charge for pepper-spraying two people in August. Hansen had raised Hill’s bail.

That led to threats from Hill, who reportedly contacted Hansen and “made comments to him that he had intimate knowledge about his family,” court records say.

Hill later left two threatening phone messages about Hansen with a Tacoma blogger. The messages referred to Hansen’s daughter by name and threats of exposure that Hill later admitted were based on falsehoods.

At Friday’s hearing, Hill asked for an appeal bond, which would have allowed his release pending the outcome of an appeal to his conviction. Hill said he hoped to attend the state’s presidential caucuses in March, and show his support for Republican candidate Ron Paul.

Superior Court Judge Ron Culpepper rejected the request.

Hill’s attorney, Robert Quillian, called Hill a “character, a gadfly,” and a familiar figure at the courthouse. He questioned the need for a lengthy prison sentence, saying the underlying threat Hill made wasn’t violent.

Culpepper countered. The content of the threat wasn’t the point of the law.

“You don’t have to threaten to kill somebody,” he said. “You don’t have to threaten to viciously assault somebody.”

The judge also questioned Hill’s story of learning Hansen’s daughter’s name from the tattoo of another inmate in the Pierce County Jail.

If true, Culpepper said, that would be “one of the great coincidences in Pierce County history.”

It was more likely, Culpepper said, that Hill researched Hansen’s background; a more deliberate action that spoke to intent.

Culpepper referred to Hill’s past behavior, which included charges of stalking public officials. Those past actions had led to misdemeanor convictions; the charge of intimidating a judge was a felony, Hill’s first. It meant being stripped of voting rights and the right to possess firearms, and theoretically disqualified Hill from future runs for public office.

“He’s guilty of the offense,” Culpepper said. “He violated the statute.”

The wrap-up paperwork included a no-contact order that barred Hill from contacting Hansen. Hill refused to sign it. Culpepper warned him the order was valid for 10 years, whether Hill signed it or not.

Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486

sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com