Michael Andrew Hecht ascended to the Pierce County Superior Court bench last year after toiling in relative obscurity during his two decades as a lawyer.

Wednesday, he saw his future as a judge cast into doubt when a jury convicted him of threatening to kill a man and buying sex from a male prostitute.

Jurors acted swiftly and definitively in deciding the case, deliberating for fewer than four hours after a six-day trial before finding Hecht guilty as charged of one count of felony harassment and one misdemeanor count of patronizing a prostitute.

Some people packing the gallery of Courtroom 411 in the County-City Building in downtown Tacoma gasped when King County Superior Court Judge James Cayce read the verdicts just after 10 a.m. Some of Hecht’s relatives began to cry.

Hecht, 59, is to be sentenced Nov. 19. Because he has no previous criminal record, he qualifies for a special sentencing of zero to 90 days in jail as a first-time offender.

Assistant state attorney general John Hillman, who prosecuted the case, told reporters he had not made a decision about what sentence to recommend.

Cayce allowed Hecht to remain free until sentencing, but he required the judge to report to jail immediately to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Hecht, who denied any wrongdoing as his case worked its way through the legal system, remained defiant after the verdicts.

With his wife and three grown children standing behind him, he told reporters waiting for him in the back of the courtroom that he was the victim of a “setup” by Morgan Armijo – the son of the man Hecht beat in the August 2008 election – and Tacoma police.

The News Tribune also was to blame for his conviction, he said.

“What’s very disappointing is four drug addicts were completely coerced and set up by Morgan Armijo and detective (Bradley) Graham to tell nothing but lies in this courtroom,” Hecht said.

“Complicating the matter was the one-sided, unfair reporting by Adam Lynn of the TNT newspaper, and, at the very beginning, the creation of this ridiculous story and putting everything out there for the public. …

“I say to the jurors they were duped, and I thank them for their consideration in the matter.”

The jury left the courthouse without talking to reporters. Hillman talked to some of them briefly after the verdicts.

“Well, they obviously believed the testimony of the primary witnesses,” Hillman said. “They didn’t think that they had any motivations to lie, and they did not believe the judge’s testimony.”

The News Tribune published a story Jan. 11 that reported Tacoma police and state authorities were investigating Hecht on possible criminal charges.

The newspaper interviewed two admitted male prostitutes – Joseph John Hesketh IV and Edward Dean Smith – who said they’d sold sex to Hecht. A series of other stories followed.

The accusations were brought to The News Tribune’s attention by Morgan Armijo, whose father, Sergio, was the incumbent judge defeated by Hecht.

Morgan Armijo, a private investigator by trade, said Wednesday his investigation of Hecht was not a vendetta. Armijo said he felt compelled to go public with allegations he learned before the August 2008 election that Hecht was patronizing prostitutes because “he was going to be a judge.”

POLICE WORK LAUDED

Hillman defended the police investigation of Hecht.

“The Tacoma police did an absolutely thorough and great investigation,” he said. “They came up with a lot of evidence and interviewed a lot of people who’ve never even heard of or talked to Morgan Armijo. To say this is a setup is just simply absurd.”

Hesketh and Smith were among four men who testified at Hecht’s trial that they sold sex to the judge on multiple occasions between 1998 and 2009. The jury convicted Hecht of buying sex at least one time from one of those four, Joseph Pfeiffer, between April 2008 and January of this year.

Hesketh, an admitted heroin addict, testified that Hecht threatened to kill him in late August 2008 after Hecht found out Hesketh was talking to people about what Hesketh said was their previous sexual relationship.

Jurors made a special finding that Hecht did, in fact, threaten to kill Hesketh and the threat made Hesketh reasonably fearful the threat would be carried out.

Hecht spent nearly two hours and 40 minutes on the witness stand Monday and denied paying anyone for sex. He also testified that the first time he’d even seen two of the men – Smith and John Marx – was when they came to court to testify that they sold sex to him multiple times.

He admitted confronting Hesketh on the street that day in late August but denied threatening to kill him.

HE’LL REMAIN ON PAID LEAVE

Bryan Chushcoff, the presiding judge of Pierce County Superior Court, issued a statement regarding Hecht’s immediate future on the bench.

Hecht agreed to take a paid leave from his $148,000-per-year job in March after he was arraigned on the criminal charges, in part to maintain the integrity of the court while his case played out.

“Given the jury’s verdict of guilty … Pierce County Superior Court believes these considerations more pertinent now,” Chushcoff said in a news release. “I am sure Judge Hecht would continue to share these concerns.

“Accordingly, he will not resume duties as a Superior Court judge while this matter remains pending in the court and before the Commission on Judicial Conduct.”

That commission is to hold a hearing Feb. 22 on charges that Hecht violated judicial canons. Depending on the outcome of that hearing, the commission could recommend to the Washington State Supreme Court that Hecht be removed from the bench.

Hecht told reporters he hadn’t decided whether to fight for his judgeship.

HAD SMALL PRACTICE

The Boston-area native went to law school in his mid-30s after a career in upholstery and furniture sales.

Hecht opened a small practice in Tacoma, specializing in representing people accused of low-level crimes, small business owners looking to incorporate, policy holders feuding with their insurance companies and surviving relatives seeking to settle a will.

He first ran for judge in 2004, unsuccessfully challenging Sergio Armijo, who had fared poorly on a survey of judicial performance sponsored by The News Tribune.

Hecht tried again in 2008 and frequently cited Armijo’s poor showing on a Bar Association-sponsored survey of judicial performance.

That time he won.

In an interview in October 2008, before the allegations against him surfaced, he told the newspaper the job would be the best he’d ever had, with a good salary and full benefits. Up to then, he had relied on his wife’s job for medical coverage.

Sworn in on Jan. 12, he took the bench in early February after attending state-sponsored judge school and other training.

A month later he went on paid leave, charged with the crimes he was convicted of Wednesday.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644

adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/crime

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Reactions after the verdict, Back page

What Michael Hecht said: What prosecutor john Hillman said: Judicial hearing

The state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct has scheduled a hearing on the case of Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht.

It will determine whether he violated judicial canons by allegedly trading cash and legal advice for sex, threatening two men, using racially insensitive language and engaging in unfair campaign conduct.

Hecht denies the charges.

The fact-finding hearing will begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 22 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. Hecht’s attorney, Wayne Fricke, and the commission’s disciplinary counsel, Paul Taylor, will be able to call and cross-examine witnesses.

King County Superior Court Judge John P. Erlick will preside over the hearing.

Nine members of the commission will decide whether to dismiss the charges against Hecht or impose sanctions. They could include recommending the Washington State Supreme Court remove Hecht from office.

Adam Lynn, The News Tribune