Prosecutor: No charges for Seim
Fourth Congressional District candidate Gavin Seim will not faces criminal charges following an incident last month at the county courthouse. Seim is pictured at a rally on the courthouse steps earlier this month.
EPHRATA - The Congressional candidate who recorded a confrontation with security and police over a gun lock box at the Grant County Courthouse will not face criminal charges.
Gavin Seim recorded a conversation where he repeatedly asked courthouse staff about a lock box at the county courthouse last month in a YouTube video that received nearly 17,000 views as of press time. He was told the lock box was in the adjoining sheriff's office, and Seim argued with Moon Security guard David Beck and responding Ephrata police about the need for a separate lock box.
"Under the totality of the circumstances presented here, many reasonable people would have been concerned that a violent confrontation was brewing." Prosecutor Angus Lee stated in a letter to Ephrata Police Chief Mike Warren.
In that letter, Lee stated that Seim was likely unaware that security was heightened that day because of a threat made to shoot and kill a defendant in court.
"The Grant County Sheriff's Office received a credible report that an individual was intending to come to Grant County Courthouse to shoot and kill a defendant in a Superior Court hearing," Lee stated.
He stated that because of the threat, made three days prior to Seim's visit, "security levels at the courthouse were temporarily elevated" and "additional officers patrolled the courthouse and other security measures were increased."
Lee was considering whether to charge Seim with obstructing a law enforcement officer, when he briefly objected to being patted down by police looking for a gun. Lee also stated he considered charging Seim with violating that state's ban on recording a private conversation without permission. Lee stated that even though the conversation took place in the courthouse, a public place, "private conversations can and do often occur in public locations. This is the very reason that surveillance cameras throughout the state record video, but not audio." In the end, Lee stated that he recommended Seim not face charges for the incident.
Seim is a Republican candidate for the Fourth Congressional District. Seim did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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