FORKS — Two judicial candidates with differing views of each other and the part-time elected position they seek in the Nov. 6 general election squared off in a spirited debate in Forks.
Erik Rohrer, the Clallam County Superior Court judge who will quit his position if elected, and John Black, the Forks lawyer and recovering alcoholic with a 29-year-old marijuana-related felony conviction, are vying for the four-year West End District Court 2 judge position.
The three-day-a-week seat is being vacated by John Doherty, who is not running for re-election.
Black, 67, and Rohrer, 60, jousted for 45 minutes before more than two dozen audience members in the multipurpose room of Peninsula College’s Forks branch on Tuesday night in what is the only forum scheduled for the post.
Ballots for the general election were mailed Wednesday to more than 4,500 District Court 2 voters from west of Lake Crescent to Neah Bay. Ballots must be postmarked or hand-delivered to drop boxes or the Clallam County courthouse by Nov. 6.
The question-answer-rebuttal forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Clallam County, which will post a video of the event at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-LWVCC by Friday, moderator Theresa Tetreau said.
In his opening statement, Rohrer rested on his experience as a jurist and his connection to Forks.
He was elected to the District Court 2 judge position in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 and 2010, resigning in 2012 after he was elected to the Superior Court post he now holds. Rohrer was re-elected to the Superior Court judgeship in 2016 without opposition.
“My wife, Cari and I, live out here for real, not pretend,” said Rohrer, who lives 18 miles east of Forks.
Rohrer said he felt far more qualified to be a District Court 2 judge now and would be good for the court.
“I have some ideas for making it better,” Rohrer said, such as “beefing up” the community service program.
The judge position is “a part-time thing,” he added.
“It does free me up to do some things.”
Noting he had been the Forks Chamber of Commerce president, he said wants to more fully participate in the community, such as working on completing the Olympic Discovery Trail.
He suggesting that Black, who also has a home in Forks, should have run instead for the contested Port Angeles-area District Court 1 position, where he would adjudicate cases in the courthouse that Rohrer said Black drives by every day from Black’s other home in Sequim.
Black, who has practiced law in Forks for 17 years and said he participates in community events, said he and his wife will move permanently to Forks if he wins.
He described himself as “a can-do guy, not a can’t-do guy” who had learned from campaigning and knocking on doors throughout the West End that voters want change on criminal, drug and alcohol issues.
Rohrer accused Black as being unrealistic about his plans for District Court 2, where Black wants to establish a court for driving-under-the-influence offenders and a mental health court.
“We’re not going to change the District Court into some completely different,” Rohrer said.
“It is it still a District Court and it’s still going to be a District Court at the end of the day.
“The opioid crisis is not going to be solved at the District Court level.”
Rohrer added that the DUI court in Port Angeles has had 41 graduates, an average of three people a year.
“What it is, is more like coddling,” Rohrer said.
Black said the DUI court would not have a negative impact on the court’s budget and pledged to use the court’s existing hours for the program.
“My goal is to modernize this court,” he said, criticizing Rohrer for displaying “incredible arrogance.”
“I’m not just, oh, well, District Court is a part-time job,” Black said.
He defended the Port Angeles DUI court, challenging Rohrer’s numbers.
“DUI court gives these people structure,” Black said.
“It’s not rocket science on what we [have] lacking out here.”
Rohrer and Black were asked if either had ever been convicted of a felony.
Rohrer said his answer is “a complete no.”
Black said he had been convicted of a felony three decades ago and was surprised the question came up.
“I had a judge hold me accountable for it, and I was held accountable for it, and I’ve been clean and sober ever since,” he said.
Black also told Peninsula Daily News when he announced for the position earlier this year that he was convicted in Edmonds in 1985 of driving under the influence.
Black, who has a 2000 law degree from Seattle University School of Law, said a state Bar Association character and fitness committee and the State Supreme Court unanimously recommended approval of his bar license 18 years ago knowing of his conviction.
He said Wednesday he pleaded guilty in 1989 of felony possession with intent to deliver marijuana and aviation smuggling.
He said he served four years in prison after piloting a single-engine Dornier Do 27 STOL (short take-off and landing) airplane from Mexico to the U.S., where he was arrested in the southern Arizona desert with 900 pounds of marijuana on board.
Black said he has talked about his conviction publicly, in court as a lawyer, and counsels drug-addicted prison inmates.
As a judge, he said in his closing statement that he wants to get to “the root of the problem” of crimes such as car prowls and next-door drug dealers.
“I’m going to go hard and fast with this community, get some stuff done out here, not just the same old stuff,” he said.
In his closing statement, Rohrer emphasized his own judicial experience and said the court also faces funding issues.
“This isn’t just about [Black’s] apparent attempt to kind of project his recovery efforts on everyone else,” Rohrer said.
“There’s more to District Court than that.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.