Albert Lin, Teddy Chow face unemployment

EPHRATA — It is unknown whether two Grant County deputy prosecuting attorneys are staying with the office.

State law requires the prosecuting attorney to appoint deputy prosecutors to a term equal to the length of his term, Human Resources Director Tammie Hechler said. With Lee swearing his oath of office Friday, deputy prosecuting attorneys positions needed to be appointed again.

Deputy Prosecutor Albert Lin and Deputy Prosecutor Teddy Chow are not on the list of people offered jobs yet, Lee said.

Lin challenged Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee in the general election. Chow publicly accused Lee of lying about a collision involving a district court judge weeks before the election.

Lee said he offered appointments for 11 of the 13 deputy prosecutor positions open, adding he expects Deputy Prosecutor Carole Highland to seek appointment when she returns from vacation. If she does, it leaves one position open.

Lee said he sent a letter asking the attorneys to notify him if they wanted to be appointed.

“There’s no presumption of re-appointment,” he said. “The prosecutor’s number one job is to make sure that they are appointing good, hard working, responsible people. The appointment process began Friday afternoon.”

The prosecutor said he plans to keep the same distribution of attorneys, four in the district court, two in juvenile court and seven in superior court.

Without Chow, a position in district court would be open. Without Lin, a position in superior court would be open, but Lee said he asked a deputy prosecuting attorney from Clark County to accept the position. If Highland seeks appointment, this could leave the prosecutor’s office seeking only one new deputy prosecutor.

Lee added prosecutors aren’t appointed to a specific division.

“What I can tell you is when I appoint people I do consider all of the information available to me,” he said. “If they are requesting appointment from within the office, I have access to their personnel records. The bottom line is, I need to make sure whoever I appoint is going to have the greatest positive impact on the office and serves the best interest of the people of Grant County and the needs at this time.”

Lee couldn’t confirm the people seeking the last position, saying he wasn’t going to comment on anyone applying for the position.

Lin, the prosecutor’s opponent during the November election, said he didn’t want to speak to The Columbia Basin Herald.

Chow said he did apply for the job, adding no one has been told about the appointments.

“He’s just leaving all of us in the dark. (Human resources) says we’re no longer employees. It’s just political retribution by him,” he said.

The district court deputy prosecutor accused Lee of lying in October and admitted to supporting Lin’s bid to become prosecutor.