Candidates with experience seek seat on Pierce County Superior Court

Courtrooms need a prosecutor, defense attorney and judicial assistant.

The race to replace retiring Pierce County Superior Court Judge Brian Tollefson has them all:

▪ Grant Blinn brings 17 years as a local prosecutor and 2 1/2 as a municipal court judge to the election.

▪ John “Jack” Hill has 26 years of experience as the head of the county Department of Assigned Counsel.

▪ Dwayne Christopher was Tollefson’s judicial assistant for nine years.

Each will be on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.

Christopher, 44, worked with Tollefson until 2007. The time familiarized him with the issues that come before a Superior Court judge, including civil, criminal, family law and other cases, he said.

“I was in the trenches for that,” Christopher said, adding that Tollefson hired only attorneys for the position.

Judicial assistants communicate with attorneys, jurors, victims and others to help the court operate. They also take care of administrative tasks, including scheduling and helping manage dockets.

In Christopher’s case, because he was an attorney himself, he said Tollefson also had him do research and read motions that would come before the court.

Since then, Christopher has gone on to private practice, where he’s handled personal injury, employment discrimination and worker’s compensation cases.

Blinn, 47, said helping rewrite the county’s protocol for child abuse investigations was one of the accomplishments he was most proud of during his time as a Pierce County prosecutor.

Now he’s the Municipal Court judge for Lakewood, University Place, Steilacoom and DuPont.

He said his court is creating a docket specifically to address the treatment needs of military veterans.

All three candidates expressed support for the county’s therapeutic courts that focus on treatment, such as drug court and mental health court.

Another recent development in Blinn’s municipal court, he said, is a video system that cut overtime spent moving defendants to court from jail.

“I’m a big advocate of using technology and going paperless,” he said.

Blinn also has experience as a defense attorney. He was a public defender on Whidbey Island out of law school, he said.

Hill, 66, left the county’s public defender department a decade ago. While there, he managed a staff of about 80, and a budget of roughly $12 million toward the end.

“I just loved the job,” he said. “I had a lot of passion for it. There was a lot of variety.”

During his tenure, he said, Pierce County often had more capital cases pending than the rest of the counties in the state combined.

After being a public defender, he served as a pro tem judge in Superior Court and local municipal courts, among other various work as an attorney.

“I think my judicial work shows trust and confidence from the court,” he said.

Hill said he also was proud of his work to help establish a family drug court in the county that focuses on helping defendants work toward regaining custody of their children.

This story was originally published July 10, 2016 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Candidates with experience seek seat on Pierce County Superior Court."