Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

well. Some of them are obvious cases, like anyone can tell this person is mentally ill. But
some of the nuances probably escape most people.
Hughes: Do you have any incredibly bizarre, wacko experiences with people who appeared
in your court?
Dimmick: Well, a lot of them. But you know everybody is represented in the State of
Washington. Everybody had a lawyer.
Hughes: Who were some of the best defense attorneys who appeared before you over the
years – ones you thought really knew their stuff.
Dimmick: Well, there were a lot of them. I mean we had the public defenders’ office
people who were trained. And they’re all good. They help each other, and they train each
other. They do a good job. When I first started out there used to be a group of attorneys
who would take the appointments to represent a defendant for like $50 or $75. And of
course what they would do is they would plead half of them guilty and then work on the
others, and they never got more money as they worked on them and took them to trial.
Then it evolved into a defenders system where they got organized and they were paid by
the county on salary instead of by the case.
Hughes: Were you frustrated at all by the advent of “determinant sentencing” that tied
a judge’s hands? I remember a bright young Grays Harbor Superior Court Judge who
previously had been a prosecutor. He left the bench after four years, saying that he was
very frustrated by being hamstrung.
Dimmick: It was after I left (the Superior Court bench) that they had the sentencing
guidelines. Then we had it here mandatory. But now it’s evolved so that the guidelines are
something to think about. They’re advisory now. They’ve gone all the way around.
Hughes: Strong feelings about that?
Dimmick: Well, I thought it was ridiculous because some of the minimums were —well
like, OK, so there’s a simple little woman who opens the door in a drug den where people
are selling stuff and she’s just kind off the street. OK, she’s got a five-year minimum, for
what? She’s not making any money; she’s not selling the stuff; she’s opening the door for
these rotten guys. There was nothing you could do.
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