Deputy sheriff’s association wants apology from judge

The Snohomish County Deputy Sheriff’s Association is asking Superior Court Judge Eric Lucas to apologize for multiple recent comments the judge made relating to law enforcement and race.

The union states its 251 members have grown “increasingly concerned with the divisive and prejudicial comments,” in recent months, in a news release Tuesday.

“... Judge Lucas’ reckless and misguided comments have been on display in his courtroom and in front of impressionable high school students,” the release states. “These statements do not serve to promote a dialogue about race and justice but instead Judge Lucas has positioned law enforcement officers in Snohomish County as oppressors and murderers.”

Specifically, the release cited a Nov. 14 article published in the Everett Herald, and a Jan. 10 Everett High School assembly where Lucas made a speech honoring Martin Luther King Jr. In the article, Lucas, who is black, spoke of the difficulties he experienced sentencing a black man in his early twenties for killing three people outside a Taco Bell.

He was paraphrased as saying, “Young black men are being gunned down by the police.”

At the high school assembly, Lucas was said to have made comments about law enforcement that gun down unarmed black men in the United States. The comments were so upsetting Everett Public Schools had to apologize to some families, according to the release.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Ian Huri then posted about his concerns with the comments on his Facebook page.

Lucas responded to the Monroe Monitor’s request with a statement released to other media, reporting he had contact through email with Everett School District superintendent Gary Cohn, who assured Lucas the school district had not apologized, and only two parents had complained about the speech.

“The press release “demands” that I apologize for a version of events presented there. I do not believe that version is accurate,” Lucas states. “And a person cannot be expected to apologize for an act they did not do. I am more than willing to apologize for any harm or hurt that I have done to someone. In what I actually said I think my meaning is clear and does not inflame passions to attack the police.”

Lucas graduated from Mariner High School in 1972, attended Stanford University, graduated as an English major from the University of Washington, and received his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He has previously spoken and written published articles on the issue of racial discrimination in the U.S.

As of Thursday, no representative of the association had spoken directly with Lucas, said Snohomish County Deputy Sheriff’s Association president Adam Fortney. He said he felt the judge’s response so far has been on the details of the vernacular represented by Huri and in the news release, and doesn’t address the real issue. He said context doesn’t make a difference.

“The problem is that there is a sitting judge in Snohomish County that believes law enforcement is killing unarmed men for no other reason than their race,” Fortney said, later adding, “We are tired, we are very weary and tired of the false narrative.”

Fortney said Lucas is well within his right to make the comments, but it is concerning for law enforcement that may end up in his courtroom.

In his statement, Lucas wrote he has reached out to members of the association. He states he is willing to talk with Huri to resolve the matter. 

“However, one of the problems in this situation is that we have not yet reached a community consensus on how to discuss these matters,” Lucas wrote. “I do sincerely believe that this needs to be done and I am more than happy to join in the effort. Thank you.”