Criticism of Estudillo is myopic

Recent letters from Nick Wallace’s attorney friends have a common theme: Judge Estudillo was never part of the Grant County legal system.

They cannot imagine Judge Estudillo’s pre-judicial experience could possibly have measured up to local experience.

They argue that “there’s no experience like Grant County experience.” Like it or not, our local justice system is intertwined with the rest of the state, and judges are benefited by relationships with attorneys and judges everywhere. Attorneys from outside Grant County regularly litigate in our Superior Court.

Judge Estudillo has endorsements from more than 75 judges in our state, 15 in Eastern Washington courts. Mr. Wallace displays the endorsement of no sitting judges and is seemingly proud that his experience has been limited to one courthouse in the middle of the state.

That sort of myopic view of the justice system is not helpful. Judge Estudillo, while born and raised in Sunnyside and with experience in a premier Eastern Washington law firm, did spend part of his career gaining valuable courtroom experience in — dare I say it — Seattle.

While Mr. Wallace may have spent about 10 days per year as a fill-in, his fraternity seemingly ignores the thousands of hours Judge Estudillo has spent as a full-time judge for the past 14 months.

Let’s move forward.

David Curnel

Moses Lake