I have recently retired after seventeen years as a judge on the Washington State Court of Appeals. We heard criminal appeals from many western Washington counties, including Kitsap County. Russ Hauge was the Kitsap prosecutor during my years on the bench.

From my view on the bench, Russ has been an outstanding prosecutor. His deputies who appeared before our court were competent and always well prepared. We saw few if any claims that Russ’s office had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct (I can remember none).

A prosecutor commits misconduct when he or she bends the rules of criminal procedure to obtain a conviction. If defense counsel in a criminal case can show a prosecutor’s harmful misconduct, the appellate court is required to reverse the conviction and send it back to the trial court for a new trial.

This is not only inefficient, it causes additional taxpayer expense. The absence of such claims speaks well of Russ’s ethics and the standards he has set for his staff.

I intend to vote for Russ Hauge. He has created and runs a competent, ethical and highly effective office. Kitsap is fortunate to have one of the very best prosecutors in the State. We should keep him.

David H. Armstrong

Port Orchard