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The AG's office is in chaos over this. And they're desperately trying to keep it a secret. And they're not telling judges the truth. It's a cluster.
Where is Linda Dalton?
Judge James Dixon recently ruled in my favor. Last month, I had scheduled an April 12 hearing challenging the AG's lifetime ban against me. The State was in court that day to ask the judge to "strike" the hearing. Junior AG Todd Sipes argued for it, I argued against it. In the courtroom was longtime lead counsel in the AG's campaign finance unit Senior Assistant Attorney General Linda Dalton, AG Communications Director Brionna Aho, and another assistant AG, and other citizens.
I prevailed -- the judge sided with me and kept the April 12 hearing.
After that, the fit hit the shan.
And there were witnesses.
It was a 9:00 am hearing and our portion of it was completed around 11:00 am.
At 12:09 pm Friday, March 1, the other parties in the case, including myself, were sent an email with an attached court filing which was filed with the court. It read:
NOTICE OF WITHDRAWAL OF COUNSEL. YOU, AND EACH OF YOU, will take notice that LINDA A. DALTON, Senior Assistant Attorney General, hereby withdraws as counsel for Plaintiff State of Washington in the above-entitled action effective March 1, 2019. This withdrawal will have no effect on the representation of Plaintiff State of Washington by the State's remaining attorneys. All future correspondence should be directed tot he remaining State counsel, S. TODD SIPE, ERIC S. NEWMAN, and PAUL M. CRISALLI. DATED this 1st day of March, 2019.
ROBERT W. FERGUSON
Attorney General
Linda A Dalton (original signature)
LINDA A. DALTON, WSBA No. 15467
Senior Assistant Attorney General
On Monday, March 4 at 6:17 PM, I received a text message from a friend in the know. It read: "It appears that Dalton was fired Friday."
My response: "They claimed today that she retired - that's what they told tabor"
Response from my friend in the know: "Would you like to retire immediately or be fired? You have five minutes." … "She was in court in the morning, shoved a junior after that, and out on her keister with no update to WSBA info, no outgoing VM, no OOO on VM, etc."
After my glorious courtroom victory and following my launch of GiveThemNothing.com, I heard about the meltdown among the AG team.
In my email update to supporters afterwards, I wrote: "I am without legal counsel. I'm on my own. So you can imagine how great it feels for a novice like me to beat the AG in court. I'll write about this more on Monday, but let me tell you, the AG's team of lawyers went hysterical afterwards. Major hissy fit in public. They are simply humiliated that the judge sided with me."
In a letter I sent to supporters, I wrote: "Thanks to the heartfelt prayers of many, I won. The judge sided with me. Ferguson was humiliated. As a result, on April 12, the judge will decide on the lifetime ban. After leaving, on the courthouse steps, the AG’s attorneys had a meltdown, turning on each other with red-faced infighting and wagging fingers: ”You shoulda said this, you never said that.” It was a spectacle. Why were they so furious? They just lost to a lawyer-less WAZZU grad (ouch!). But even more importantly, Ferguson never expected he’d ever have to defend his absurd accusations against me because he never thought I’d make it this far."
Once I heard about the meltdown, I talked to the witness. First thing I heard said was: "I felt bad for the guy." I asked for an email describing it. I recently got it.
It reads: "a friend of mine asked me if I would go to the Thurston County Court House to support Tim Eyman during his court hearing. After Tim had won his motion, in front of Judg Dixion I was in the process of leaving one of the 2nd floor court rooms along with four of the Attorney General's Office employees. As we proceeded down the stairs, Attorney Lyndia Dulton, in a very loud voice started lecturing Attorney Todd Sipes, another Attorney General Office employee over losing one of the motions. With her loud voice and bad behavior it made me feel very uncomfortable. I decided to walk back up the stairs. As I reach the top of the stairs I saw Tim Eyman leaving the courtroom. I went an interduced myself to Tim."
In a phone conversation afterwards, the witness said that AG communications director Brionna Aho was there and witnessed the whole thing and while it was happening "she turned around and saw that I was seeing it too. She then shooshed them and told all of them to move it along."
The AG's office is in chaos over this. And they're desperately trying to keep it a secret. And judges are only now finding out about it.
On Monday, the judge handling discovery issues in my case asked about it after receiving my Monday morning email:
March 4, 2019
To: AG’s office (I’m not sure who to address this to now that lead counsel Linda Dalton has filed her withdrawal from this and all other cases)
From: Tim Eyman, pro se
Cc: Judge Tabor
From that 11am telephonic hearing/conference call:
Judge Tabor: "OK, is everybody else on?"
Todd Sipes: "Yes, your Honor."
Tabor: "OK, Mr. Sipe, and who else?"
Sipe: "Uh, there's Eric Newman and Paul Crisalli."
Tabor: "All right, let me start off with something that's actually not set for today, but there is something I'm curious about, about what's taking place here. Mr. Eyman just less than an hour ago I received an email from you ... it started off that email by saying you didn't know where to send it since Ms. Dalton had withdrawn from the case. And I'm not aware of that. I didn't get any notification to that so could I inquire of the State, is Ms. Dalton no longer on this case?"
Sipe (very nervous): "Yes, so uh, um, Linda Dalton uh she's retired. So she is not on this case anymore. But the original, er, the three other attorneys, uh, who are on this call are are are on this case so the the communications should be sent to to all all the remaining attorneys."
Tabor (obviously still perplexed): "OK, well, I appreciate knowing about that."
Eyman: "Ya, I got it on Friday and I didn't see that you weren't on that judge. I'm sorry about that."
You have to understand that FOR DECADES Linda Dalton has been senior lead counsel in the campaign finance unit of the AG's office. She's the top dog, the head cheese. She's it. The other attorneys are a bunch of clowns compared to her. And the last thing they want is for anyone to know about this. She didn't just withdraw from my case, she withdrew from all cases.
Did AG Ferguson fire Linda Dalton for ASSAULT or for LOSING to me?
That's the question of the day.
Brionna Aho is the AG's communications director: brionna.aho@atg.wa.gov, desk: 360-753-2727, cell: 360-338-2743, Twitter - @BrionnaAho
Todd Sipe, Asst AG, 360-586-0710, ToddS4@atg.wa.gov
Linda A. Dalton, "Soft Democrat", birth date 11/23/1956, 9210 71st St SW Lakewood WA 98498
Washington State Bar Association information:
https://www.mywsba.org/PersonifyEbusiness/LegalDirectory/LegalProfile.aspx?Usr_ID=000000015467
The AG's office is still desperately trying to get my April 12 hearing on the lifetime ban cancelled.
Tomorrow, Friday, March 8th at 9:00 am, we are arguing before Judge Dixon again on the lifetime ban. This time, I will be going up against Asst AG Eric Newman (introduction here: https://www.wethegoverned.com/ag-fergusons-persecution-of-tim-eyman-eymans-plea-and-a-creepy-ag-employee/
Why does Eric want to cancel the April 12 hearing? Because he's taking a "personal trip" that day (Is he visiting Linda at the Peter Rogoff wing of the Monroe clinic? https://www.monroeclinic.org/behavioralhealth)
From my brief that was filed with the court on March 5:
"Judge Dixon, you rejected the State’s motion to strike the April 12 hearing on the lifetime ban. The stakes for me are astronomically high. If I lose on April 12 and the Court does not excise the lifetime ban from the State’s case against me, my ability to exercise my right to do ballot measures in Washington state is significantly diminished.
...
The State is certainly not disadvantaged or burdened in any way by maintaining the April 12 hearing date. Quite the contrary, they will benefit from having an extra week to prepare their reply, arguments, and filings (which seems necessary now that their longtime lead counsel Linda Dalton has withdrawn from the case).
As for Mr. Newman’s “personal trip,” I can certainly sympathize with someone whose personal life is inconvenienced by my case. But given the fact that this case has brought quite a bit of inconvenience to my personal life (bankruptcy, divorce, etc), I don’t believe that it’s too much to ask that an experienced attorney (who willfully flouted local court rules by not filing with the Court the scheduling questionnaire identifying dates of unavailability) reschedule his “personal trip” or have another attorney handle the April 12th hearing. The State has assigned legions of attorneys to my case; I find it highly doubtful that Mr. Newman’s legal acumen is vastly superior to others they have on the payroll.
CONCLUSION
Judge Dixon, the State is asking you to reverse your decision to conduct an already scheduled hearing on my life-altering motion regarding a lifetime ban on my future political activity because one of the AG’s 600 attorneys wants to go on a “personal trip.” As a pro se litigant with zero legal training going up against the most powerful government litigation agency in the state of Washington, it’s hard for me to understand how such a frivolous reason can be justified. ...
I ask the Court to not grant the State’s motion to move this all-important hearing so that we can all accommodate Mr. Newman’s personal life. The hearing on the Lifetime Ban motion is set for April 12. Please let it remain there.
-- END --
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