State prosecutors will review allegations provided by Michael Hecht’s political opponents that the Pierce County Superior Court judge-elect patronized a prostitute several years ago and recently threatened to kill the man.

Supporters of outgoing Judge Sergio Armijo allege that Hecht picks up male prostitutes near Tacoma’s Antique Row, a part of downtown that police say is known for prostitution.

Hecht, contacted by telephone Monday by The News Tribune, declined to comment.

His attorney, Wayne Fricke of Tacoma, told the newspaper Friday that Hecht “vehemently denies that he’s done anything criminal” and intends to “vigorously defend himself against any and all accusations.”

Fricke said Hecht is the target of a vendetta by Armijo’s supporters.

“It’s unfortunate that, at a time when he should be relishing taking the bench, these allegations are coming out,” Fricke said.

A detective in the Tacoma Police Department’s special assault unit, which investigates sex crimes and crimes against children, looked into the allegations over the past six weeks and turned over the results of his investigation to Pierce County prosecutors last week, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.

An Armijo supporter generated the investigation by providing information about Hecht to authorities and gave The News Tribune a dossier containing the allegations.

The newspaper tracked down the man who made them. In an interview, he confirmed what he told Armijo’s supporters, saying that as a teenager he exchanged money for sex with Hecht on multiple occasions beginning in the late 1990s.

The man, Joseph John Hesketh IV, introduced a News Tribune reporter to another man, 39-year-old Edward Smith, who said he had sex with Hecht in exchange for cash in the recent past.

Both Hesketh and Smith are homeless and have criminal records.

County prosecutors received the results of the police investigation Tuesday and – to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest with the county court – asked the state Attorney General’s Office to review the investigation and decide if charges are appropriate, deputy prosecutor Mary Robnett said Wednesday.

Chief state prosecutor Lana Weinmann confirmed that the Attorney General’s Office had received the request from Robnett.

“I know very little about the case other than we have been asked to be the prosecuting authority to review this case for obvious potential conflict-of-interest reasons,” she said Wednesday.

Hecht defeated Armijo in the Aug. 19 election and is to be sworn into office Monday during a private meeting with court officials. A public ceremony welcoming him to the bench is scheduled for Thursday.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Bryan Chushcoff said Friday that Hecht made him aware of the allegations last week. Chushcoff said he hopes there is a thorough and fair investigation.

Monday’s private swearing-in will go ahead as planned, he added.

Hecht is to receive nearly three weeks of training before he will be ready to begin hearing cases, according to court administrator Andra Motyka. Chushcoff said he’s not sure what will happen after Hecht completes his training.

“We’re waiting to see how this process plays out,” the presiding judge said.

VETERAN ATTORNEY

Hecht, 58, is a married father of three grown children and the grandfather of one. The News Tribune could find no records that he has ever been arrested or convicted of any crime.

He moved to Tacoma more than 20 years ago to attend law school and has worked as an attorney in the area for nearly two decades.

Hecht told The News Tribune during an October interview for a separate story that he spent most of his law career representing regular folks who found their lives intertwined with the legal system: People accused of low-level crimes, small-business owners looking to incorporate, policyholders fighting with their insurance companies, surviving relatives seeking to settle a will.

One of his proudest legal moments, Hecht said in October, was representing a boy who got himself into some trouble years ago and wound up in juvenile court.

“One kid had some problems. We worked with the probation department,” Hecht said. “To make a long story short, he’s now a big-shot architect. I felt good about that.”

As a Superior Court judge, Hecht will preside over felony criminal cases, intense family law matters and civil disputes that sometimes result in multimillion-dollar settlements.

He also told The News Tribune during the October interview that he often gives money to homeless people and tries to help them whenever he can.

“I can’t change their life, but I can sure as hell change their moment,” Hecht said at that time.

He made similar comments to the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association, which published an article on the incoming judge in its November newsletter.

THE INVESTIGATION

County prosecutors requested the police investigation of the judge-elect in mid-November after Armijo supporter Ted Gonzalez gave them a dossier containing allegations against Hecht.

Most of the information was compiled by Morgan Armijo, the incumbent judge’s son and a private investigator by trade. He told The News Tribune he began looking into Hecht’s background last summer after two people told him the judge-elect had engaged in inappropriate activity. Judge Armijo told The News Tribune he was aware of his son’s investigation but had no role in it.

Prosecutors gave police the dossier, which contained allegations that Hecht bought sex from a teenager eight years ago and continues to pick up prostitutes.

Gonzalez, who also gave the dossier to The News Tribune, said he provided another copy to the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The commission’s executive director, citing the agency’s policies, would neither confirm nor deny that a complaint against Hecht had been filed. Such complaints become public only if the commission investigates and finds wrongdoing on the part of a judge.

A SWORN DECLARATION

The dossier given to county prosecutors and the newspaper contained the sworn declaration by Hesketh, now 24 and known by the street name “Strawberry.”

The News Tribune found Hesketh and interviewed him Dec. 2. He is an admitted drug addict with a misdemeanor criminal record, including convictions for petty theft, vehicle prowling, trespassing on public property and escaping police custody.

He told a reporter he signed the declaration and said its contents are true but could offer no evidence, aside from his word, that the sexual encounters with Hecht took place.

“When I was fourteen ears (sic) of age, I left my family home and started living on the streets of Tacoma, Washington,” according to the declaration, which is dated Sept. 2. “I supported myself by working as a male prostitute, performing sexual acts upon male customers in exchange for money. One of my first customers was a man named Michael Hecht.”

In an interview with The News Tribune, Hesketh was unable to say exactly when the alleged encounters with Hecht began or whether he’d reached the age of consent – 16 in Washington.

He told the newspaper that Hecht would pick him up outside Club Silverstone near Antique Row, drive him to his office on North Pearl Street and pay him for sex. Hesketh said there were eight to 10 such encounters, which began about 1998 and ended when he moved to the East Coast about 2001.

Hesketh’s father, J.J. Hesketh, confirmed to The News Tribune that his son moved to Maryland about 2001 and lived there for several years.

Joseph Hesketh said he returned to Tacoma in 2006. There have been no sexual encounters with Hecht since his return, he told The News Tribune.

‘I WAS AFRAID’

In the declaration Hesketh provided to Armijo’s supporters, Hesketh contends Hecht threatened him Aug. 30 in downtown Tacoma. Morgan Armijo told The News Tribune he was conducting his investigation into Hecht during that time.

“Michael Hecht drove up in a blue Nissan automobile,” Hesketh said in the declaration. “I was afraid he was going to hit me with his car.”

Hecht was angry and asked Hesketh if he’d been talking about him, according to the declaration, which states that Hecht also threatened to kill Hesketh.

“He was acting crazy,” Hesketh said in the document. “I assured him I was not talking about him, and he appeared to calm down somewhat and left. I felt very threatened by his words and conduct.”

Hesketh travels with a convicted Florida sex offender, Michael Mundorff, who told police and The News Tribune that he saw Hesketh’s run-in with Hecht.

QUESTIONS RAISED ON ANTIQUE ROW

In the declaration, Hesketh also said he’s seen Hecht recently pick up “males whom I know are prostitutes or kids simply trying to survive by prostituting themselves.”

“I have seen Michael Hecht on a regular basis cruising in his automobile in areas of high male prostitution,” Hesketh said in his declaration. “Mr. Hecht would circle the block time and time again in the antique area of downtown Tacoma.”

At least one merchant in the area, Guy Shepard, told The News Tribune in November, that he, too, has seen Hecht driving his car frequently near Antique Row.

“I’ve seen him pick up some young men,” said Shepard, who owns an antique store. “What they do after they leave here, I don’t know.”

At least two other business owners told Morgan Armijo that Hecht often is in the Antique Row area.

One of the two, Albert Milliken, who also owns an antique store, told The News Tribune in December that he’d recently talked to police and would not comment about Hecht. The other man declined to give an interview to the newspaper.

A News Tribune reporter spotted Hecht’s blue Nissan car in the area twice in the evening in late November. Hecht was at the wheel on at least one of those occasions.

Hecht is an antiques aficionado who helped support himself in law school by working at a Tacoma antique dealership, according to comments he made to the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association for its November story.

ISSUE PURSUED BY JUDGE’S SON

Morgan Armijo told The News Tribune last month that he began investigating Hecht after two business owners in downtown Tacoma told him on separate occasions, without his asking, that Hecht might be involved in inappropriate activities.

The first allegation came in 2004 before Judge Armijo won re-election against Hecht in the first contest between the two men, Morgan Armijo said.

He said he brought the allegation to his father’s attention but was told to drop it.

“It died right there,” Morgan Armijo said.

He said he again heard about Hecht in August 2008 as he was delivering campaign signs to a supporter of his father on Antique Row. That business owner said Hecht was involved in inappropriate activities, Morgan Armijo said.

“Now I’m excited. Now I’m saying, ‘Wow, there may be some credibility to this information,’” the younger Armijo said. “Why are two different people telling me this information?”

He said he took the allegations to his father and again was told to leave it alone.

“Dad says, ‘Don’t worry about it. Drop it,’” Morgan Armijo said.

The younger Armijo said he continued asking questions in the days after the election when it became clear his father had lost to Hecht. The election results were not certified until September.

“It just got me thinking: How is it that these people downtown know about this information and no one else does?” he said.

Morgan Armijo said his investigation eventually led him to Hesketh, who told him he’d traded money for sex with Hecht.

“Everything matched up,” Morgan Armijo said.

Hesketh agreed to swear out the Sept. 2 declaration, which was drawn up by local attorney Erik Bauer at Morgan Armijo’s request.

Armijo’s backers did nothing with the information for several weeks before deciding to make it public, said Ted Gonzalez, the supporter who provided the dossiers to county prosecutors, the judicial conduct commission and The News Tribune.

“You can’t leave something like this unturned, man,” he said. “It’s too serious.”

Sergio Armijo, interviewed Dec. 30 by The News Tribune, said he was aware of the allegations against Hecht but took no active role in his son’s investigation.

“I didn’t want to get involved,” the elder Armijo said. “I figured the proper authorities would be given the information and the proper thing would be done with it.”

He said he thinks the allegations hurt Hecht’s ability to act as a judge.

“I think it puts a big shadow on the person who’s going to be passing judgment on every kind of case – criminal, civil, you name it,” he said.

Armijo – first appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1994 – said he has no intentions of seeking another seat on the bench. He is planning to practice law again on a part-time basis with his wife, attorney Belinda Armijo.

RULES CALL FOR INTEGRITY

Cynthia Gray is the director of the Center for Judicial Ethics at the American Judicature Society, a national nonpartisan organization that works to improve the U.S. justice system. The organization has offices in Iowa and North Carolina.

Speaking hypothetically, Gray told The News Tribune that a criminal conviction could have repercussions for a judge – including discipline from a judicial conduct commission or a state bar association – but that it wouldn’t necessarily result in removal from the bench.

“You’ve had judges in your state that have been convicted of drunk driving and continued to preside over cases,” Gray said. “If they respond correctly, it’s a wake-up call for them.”

Bobbe Bridge kept her seat on the Washington State Supreme Court despite being charged with driving under the influence in 2003. She received a deferred prosecution in exchange for staying out of trouble and speaking to groups about the dangers of drunken driving.

She also was reprimanded by the judicial conduct commission.

In Hecht’s case, Gonzalez told The News Tribune on Dec. 30 that he’d been contacted recently by commission officials and told that a case number had been assigned to his complaint.

The commission’s Reiko Callner, speaking hypothetically, told The News Tribune last month that she wasn’t sure if the agency has the authority to investigate allegations against someone who’s been elected to become a judge but has not yet taken the bench.

Canon 2 of the Washington Code of Judicial Conduct states: “Judges should comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644

blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

Lawyer calls allegations false, politically motivated

Allegations that Pierce County Superior Court Judge-elect Michael Hecht has engaged in sex with a prostitute and threatened to kill the man are untrue and driven by politics, his attorney said Friday.

Wayne Fricke said his client is being persecuted by supporters of the man Hecht beat in the August election – Sergio Armijo – as part of a vendetta.

“This was a very deliberate hatchet job and was done to keep him off the bench,” Fricke said.

The attorney said the fact that the allegations were spawned by Armijo’s supporters – including the outgoing judge’s son, private investigator Morgan Armijo – “reeks.”

He also questioned the credibility of their investigation and the witnesses on whom they relied. Their chief witness, Joseph John Hesketh IV, is homeless and an admitted drug addict with a misdemeanor criminal record.

Fricke said he’s talked to one person who cooperated with Armijo’s supporters and who said he was given dinner and drinks and promised a computer in exchange for damaging information on Hecht. Fricke would not divulge that person’s name.

Hecht also said Morgan Armijo told him last summer that he’d never be a judge, even if he won the election, according to Fricke.

Morgan Armijo said Fricke’s contentions that a witness was wined and dined and promised a computer, and that he threatened Hecht, “are crazy.”

“I never said that,” Armijo said Friday.

Fricke also criticized the handling of the matter by The News Tribune, which received information about Hecht’s alleged activities in mid-November.

He said the newspaper treated Hecht unfairly by not giving him more time to comment on its findings.

After waiting for police to interview Hecht, a reporter called him twice on Monday to offer him a chance to comment.

Hecht asked who had made the allegations against him. Told that the newspaper had talked with two men who said he had paid them for sex, Hecht asked for some time to consider agreeing to an interview.

The reporter reiterated that offer to Fricke on Tuesday when the attorney contacted the newspaper on Hecht’s behalf to inquire about the stories and said he would be the judge-elect’s contact with The News Tribune in the future.

The newspaper contacted Fricke during the lunch hour Friday and offered his client the opportunity to come in that afternoon or evening to review the story before its publication. Fricke declined on Hecht’s behalf.

The newspaper extended the offer to 3 p.m. Saturday, but Fricke again declined to bring Hecht in to review the stories.

Fricke also said he would not make Hecht available for comment. It would be unwise for Hecht to say anything publicly while subject to a criminal investigation, Fricke said.