Song Pick: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds
In my opinion:
As vociferous as I may be about DOC’s criminal regime, there’s more to my articles than
just me writing about the underlying event and getting a Court to agree with me. What I
have yet to write about is the incredible obstacles I have to overcome in order to even
get the Court order in the first place.
As a State agency, DOC is represented by the Attorney General’s office whenever it is
named as a Defendant in a lawsuit. As a prisoner, my movements are restricted and
structured: to mail legal documents, I have to go through a staff and register my mail
after it is inspected; to make photocopies I have to fill out a request form and submit
it to a prison counselor along with the documents to be copied; to make a legal phone
call I have: to ask for the phone to be switched on; to argue a case before the Court I
have to note a telephonic motion first, and then note the actual hearing (a three week
process); to receive any legal documents I have to get put on a callout for the next day
and go stand in line with up to 200+ other prisoners waiting to get their legal
documents. Needless to say, it’s already a daunting task to prosecute any legal claim
while imprisoned.
But to add to the rigmarole already described, we get these Assistant Attorney Generals
(AAG) opposing the case that like to think that just because they’re State attorneys,
they can do whatever the fuck they want to do–even if it’s illegal. Take AAG CANDIE
DIBBLE (actual name), for instance. She’s currently representing DOC in 6 of my legal
claims, and she neither plays fair nor by the rules. In fact, she commits crimes to
cover up DOC’s violations of State law. In Thurston County Superior Court Cause
#17-2-04257-34, I challenged DOC’s improper redactions they made under the PRA. I
literally submitted the page they had redacted (blacked out) as evidence to the Court.
At the hearing, Dibble blatantly lied to the Judge and stated that DOC had not redacted
the page, despite the redacted page being in evidence already. The Judge incredulously
relied on Dibble’s false statement and ruled for DOC on the issue.
I moved to reconsider, bringing Dibble’s false statement to light and giving her an
opportunity to clean up her bad faith misrepresentations to a Superior Court Judge in an
official proceeding. Do you think she corrected her statement like an ethical, honest
person would do? NOPE!! Instead, she continued her charade and let the false statement
stand. Wrong move.
I filed a grievance with the Washington State Bar Association against Miss Dibble, which
is currently active and ongoing. See, as an attorney, there are certain things that Miss
Dibble is prohibited from doing in the course of her representation, and knowingly lying
to a judge is foremost among that which is prohibited. As ironic as it might be for a
convicted felon to prosecute violations of State and federal law, at least I make it a
point to be respectful to the opposition and to show candor and respect to the tribunal.
I guess when your job is to defend governmental crimes, it’s OK to perpetuate the
initial crimes with further crimes just to avoid liability in the first instance. When I
broke the law, the State expected me to own up to it and accept full punitive sanction;
yet when the State breaks the law, Assistant Attorney General Candie Dibble commits
crimes to facilitate the State’s illegal acts. Seems pretty hypocritical to me.
Remember: this is supposed to be Government OF the People. BY the People. FOR the
People. It’s time for some accountability and ethics to be injected into our government
offices and, even if the everyday Washington citizen won’t stand up against malfeasance
in public office, at least there’s one convicted felon diligently attempting to do so.
This article will continue as it develops.
(c) Copyright 2018 BRIAN MATTHEWS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
BRIAN MATTHEWS
DOC #796769
