Prominent Pierce County attorney, who defended high-profile clients, dies at 85
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- Monte Hester, a prominent Pierce County attorney, died at 85 years old.
- Hester garnered a reputation as a go-to criminal defense attorney.
- He represented high-profile clients and started Hester Law Group.
Monte Hester, a prominent trial attorney who represented public officials and others in high-profile cases in Pierce County and established Hester Law Group, has died. He was 85.
Hester died on April 21 following a roughly 18-month battle with cancer, according to his son, Lance Hester, who’s also an attorney with the law firm.
During his lengthy career, Monte Hester garnered a reputation in the county and beyond as a go-to criminal defense attorney.
Keith Black, who served for many years as chief of the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office’s civil division, said Tuesday that Monte Hester had a “top reputation throughout our state.”
“I think Monte was, without question, absolutely outstanding,” Black said. “(He) earned a tremendous reputation as a most excellent trial lawyer in the criminal defense field.”
Long before former Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney John Ladenburg was elected to that role in 1986, he joined Monte Hester’s firm after law school in 1971 and the two became good friends. Monte Hester was already an established young lawyer at that point, but he became much more of a presence in the legal community over the next 40 years and his trial work and honesty were admired by many, according to Ladenburg.
“Monte was a tough lawyer on the other side, but you always knew he would be absolutely fair and honest with you,” Ladenburg said in an email Tuesday. “No tricks, no hidden ball. Monte was the epitome of ethics.”
In an interview Monday, retired Pierce County Superior Court Judge Thomas Felnagle, who frequently sparred with Monte Hester while a prosecutor, described him as fair but also a tough opponent who kept Felnagle on his toes.
“If not the best, he was certainly of the best,” Felnagle said. “He was a giant. He’s going to be missed.”
He was known to be unafraid to take cases to jurors, and his unmatched preparation and ability to think on his feet gave his clients “a great deal of confidence in his ability” to win at trial, Lance Hester told The News Tribune shortly after his father’s death.
“I think the reputation is bigger than just being a ‘trial dog,’” Lance Hester said. “I think the reputation is: ‘this guy works harder than everyone.’”
High-profile representation
While he was already a well-known lawyer by the late 1970s, it was Monte Hester’s involvement in a public corruption case that made him a name in criminal defense, according to his son. He represented former Pierce County Sheriff George V. Janovich Sr., who was convicted of racketeering and served six years in prison until he was released in 1986.
Monte Hester’s clients were frequently found in the pages of The News Tribune.
They included David Lewis Rice, who killed a prominent Seattle lawyer and the lawyer’s family on Christmas Eve in 1985 and had his death sentence overturned; ex-Pierce County auditor Richard Greco, who was convicted for accepting bribes and official misconduct in the 1980s; Frank Dalton, a Steilacoom High School honor student who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1993 for the ax murder of his mother, who he also hit with a bat and shot twice; and Beatrice Finley, who was sentenced to seven-plus years in prison for the 1993 shooting death of her allegedly abusive husband.
He represented Brian Eggleston, who was tried three times for the 1995 shooting death of Pierce County Sheriff’s deputy John Bananola and ultimately sentenced to 38 years in prison; and Campbell Alefaio, who was acquitted of murder in the drive-by shooting of 17-year-old Ann Marie Harris in Lakewood in 1997.
After then-Pierce County Councilman Wendell Brown was acquitted of soliciting a prostitute in 1997, a Lakewood police sergeant noted that about 30 men had been arrested in recent prostitution stings and only Brown, whom Monte Hester represented, was found not guilty. The sergeant said he wasn’t worried about more acquittals.
“Most of these guys don’t have the money to hire Monte Hester,” the sergeant said, according to The News Tribune’s reporting at the time.
Monte Hester handled personal injury and civil rights cases too, according to his son. In 1990, he won a $5.4 million verdict against United Bank in Tacoma on behalf of an employee who was severely injured after she was stabbed and robbed in the bank’s parking lot, court records show. Lance Hester recalled that the verdict was one of the largest in either the county or state at the time. His father, until his death, remained one of the trustees for the victim, who suffered brain injuries in the attack, he said.
“He would have shed a tear until (his death) about that case,” he said.
Monte Hester obtained multimillion-dollar settlements for other victims and not-guilty verdicts for many clients falsely accused of serious felonies, including murder, according to his biography on Hester Law Group, which he founded in the 1980s.
“Notably, Mr. Hester’s trial work has resulted in numerous self-defense verdicts, and he has achieved acquittals in many other felony and misdemeanor cases, including white-collar cases,” the biography says.
As a fresh graduate out of what’s now Seattle University School of Law, attorney Wayne Fricke was looking for a job in 1986 when a friend connected him to Monte Hester, who hired Fricke to perform work on the Greco case.
Fricke, who’s with Hester Law Group, described the firm’s founder as a hard-working mentor who carried himself like a gentleman inside and outside the courtroom.
“He cared about people, there’s no question about that,” Fricke said by phone. “With his passing, he’s one of the old guard. You don’t replace him.”
From trial court to basketball court
Monte Hester grew up in Oklahoma as a talented basketball player. He met his future wife, Teddi, in Lake Tahoe before settling down in Gig Harbor where she was from, according to Lance Hester.
His basketball prowess was particularly useful during daily pickup games with lawyers and judges in Tacoma, according to Black, who played basketball in the group. He said that Monte Hester initiated the tradition “in many ways,” which began sometime around the mid-1980s and carried on for more than three decades, even if the weekly number of games dwindled.
Sometimes, the basketball court would be where conversations took place about issues in the downtown legal community, but often the games were simply about enjoying the sport and each other’s company, Black said. Participants joked it was the “NBA,” he added, as in the “Noontime Basketball Association.”
“We moved around a bit, but always seemed to find a good place to play,” he said.
Felnagle recalled a time during trial when he and Monte Hester were called into chambers by a judge after going back and forth at each other. All of a sudden, Monte Hester playfully tossed Felnagle over his shoulder and ran around with him in the room. Felnagle called it “an icebreaker.”
“You never knew what to expect from him,” Felnagle said.
While once seeking to delay a hearing but facing pushback from a federal judge, Monte Hester exclaimed he would do anything and, when asked to prove it, he stood on his head — “wingtips pointed to the ceiling,” according to Lance Hester.
“Monte Hester” was also the name of a Pierce County Sheriff’s K-9, according to Lance Hester, who previously understood the story to be just a rumor until he said a deputy confirmed it to him and described the dog as the best and toughest in their lineup.
“Not lore,” Lance Hester said in a follow-up email.
Monte Hester enjoyed traveling, including as a pilot in his plane and by water in his yacht. He was “a shining example” of a father and husband, Lance Hester said, and he committed to — and was awarded for — representing indigent defendants regardless of whether he had time with his private caseload, according to his son.
“He was one of the rare people that you always walked away (from) feeling better about yourself than when your time with him began,” Lance Hester said.
Monte Hester was a member of the board of directors for the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel from 1988 to 1994 and formerly a city attorney and judge for the city of Gig Harbor, according to his Lawyers.com biography.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Teddi; his sons Lance and Craig Hester; his daughter Monica Swanson; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren, according to Lance Hester.
