PORT ANGELES — The public may never know the outcome of a highly publicized court case about a Sequim businessman with a history of large political contributions who was charged with assaulting a sheriff’s deputy.

Attorneys are staying mum on a resolution reached this week in the case of Jay Edwin Ketchum, and Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams said he has tentatively agreed to keep the stipulation, sealed.

In general, a stipulation in a criminal trial is a contract on how to resolve the case, such as through deferred prosecution or an agreed-upon payback of stolen money or fines, he said.

Ketchum’s attorney, Brent Basden of Port Angeles, and Carol Case, a special deputy prosecuting attorney from Mason County assigned to the case after the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office recused itself, reached the stipulation Monday morning after jury selection had started for Ketchum’s trial.

The details of the stipulation have not been released.

Won’t talk

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Case said she would not discuss the case “under any circumstances,” as agreed upon in the settlement.

Basden did not return phone messages left at his office.

Williams said he hasn’t seen the stipulation which is still being prepared.

It is scheduled to be filed by Aug. 12, at which time the judge said he will determine whether it is necessary to seal the stipulation to protect the interests of the people involved.

“Tentatively, I have agreed to (seal it),” Williams said Tuesday.

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The rest of the story appears in the Wednesday Peninsula Daily News.