Seattle City Attorney Ends Judge Disqualification Policy
Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans has ended a policy from the previous administration that barred a specific municipal court judge from hearing certain cases. The prior policy involved routinely disqualifying the elected judge from presiding over cases brought by the city. The reversal allows the judge to once again hear cases assigned to their courtroom without automatic disqualification from the City Attorney's office.
- The disqualified jurist is Seattle Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi, a former public defender who was elected to the bench in November 2022 after campaigning on a platform of restorative justice. - Former City Attorney Ann Davison implemented the policy in early 2024, ordering her lawyers to file "affidavits of prejudice" to bar Judge Vaddadi from hearing criminal cases. This legal tool allows attorneys to disqualify a judge from a case if they believe their client cannot receive a fair hearing. - Davison's office accused Judge Vaddadi of a "regular pattern of biased rulings," including improperly overruling probable cause findings from other judges and mishandling domestic violence and DUI cases. - The blanket use of these affidavits for all of one judge's criminal cases was an unusual move that effectively removed an elected official from her primary duties, relegating her mostly to traffic infractions for over a year. - In response to the policy, the ACLU of Washington, on behalf of community groups and voters, sued the City Attorney's office, arguing it was an abuse of prosecutorial discretion and undermined the will of the voters who elected Judge Vaddadi. This lawsuit was dropped after the policy was reversed. - Judge Vaddadi filed a formal complaint with the Washington State Bar Association against former City Attorney Ann Davison, accusing her of making false and defamatory statements to justify the policy. - The new City Attorney, Erika Evans, called the previous administration's policy "misguided" and "unfair," stating that prosecutors should litigate cases rather than attempt to ban judges. - The reversal was a fulfillment of a campaign promise by Erika Evans, whose new policy requires prosecutors to seek disqualification on a rare, case-by-case basis with clear reasoning, which was the standard practice prior to Davison's administration.
