Judge talks about plea agreement

Said case should have gone to trial

EPHRATA - During the Tuesday sentencing of Michael Ian Meriwether, 23, Moses Lake, a Grant County Superior Court judge questioned the incident for not going to trial.

Meriwether was sentenced to 20.25 months in prison and community custody for attempted burglary in the first degree and assault in the third degree.

He entered terminally ill cancer patient Christine Hughes' Moses Lake apartment in February and assaulted her.

During the sentencing, Defense Attorney Michael Haas accused Hughes of selling narcotics. He said he obtained text messages pertaining to drug deals between Hughes and Meriwether.

Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline said the accusations were irrelevant because the incident was not heading to trial.

"If Ms. Hughes was the biggest drug dealer in town, wouldn't it be equally illegal to beat her up with an implement, tie her up and choke her?" he asked.

Sperline asked if the victim was worthy of being beaten "within an inch of her life" for being an alleged drug dealer.

"I'm not interested in or will I respond to a social history of their relationship," he said.

Sperline said what matters is Meriwether threatened her life. The crime matters, not the alleged past history.

Prosecuting Attorney Ed Owens said it's unclear where the text messages came from and did not agree with the accusation of Hughes being a drug dealer.

He said there was other evidence that could not be produced such as the baseball bat Hughes claims she was beaten with.

"We're not saying it didn't happen, we're not saying the victim was lying," Owens said. "We can only deal with what evidence we have."

He said the incident could not go to trial based on the evidence.

After the sentencing, Hughes said the prosecution did not do a good job of collecting evidence. She said she held onto a robe she wore during the attack. The boot print and duct tape-covered robe was preserved in a plastic bag for months before a police officer collected it, she said.

"It's the kind of case that brings into such sharp focus, the concerns and criticisms of various components of the justice system," Sperline said about the agreement.

In Grant County last year, there were more than 900 felony cases, Sperline noted. To take each one to trial would take many more courts, judges and attorneys. He said plea agreements can help serve to reduce costs and provide justice in numerous cases.

As a judge, he said he is required to make sure the plea agreement is consistent with the judgment.

"Once in a while, we ought to have a trial," Sperline said.

He said the community should have a voice in the process by having 12 citizens serving as a jury and reviewing all of the evidence in an open court "warts and all."

Sperline said it might have been a good idea to take the Meriwether case to trial.

He said he does not view a plea agreement as a negative avenue in the legal process but taking an issue to trial gets the community involved and reveals evidence for evaluation.

Sperline said he wonders if the public would be served better by hearing all sides of the story. Too often there is a disconnect between what the incident felt like to the victim, what the sentence is and what the community believes about the issue.

"She probably believes this was attempted murder," he said.

Hughes advised in an interview with the Columbia Basin Herald, she thought Meriwether meant to leave her for dead.

Despite the victim's feelings, Sperline said he can't give a sentence adequate to what the victim feels it should be due to Meriwether's plea agreement and the sentencing range of the charges.

He said overusing the plea agreement option makes it appear the court system is the property of the judges and attorneys who operate within it rather than the citizens.

Sperline said the benefits of taking the issue to trial should have been evaluated.