WHIDBEY NEWS-TIMES: Judge orders attorney to pay $10k to Low Income Housing Institute

Jessie Stensland reports from Island County Superior Court:

A judge ordered an attorney representing a Freeland-based group to pay a $10,000 sanction for violating a civil court rule by claiming that an affordable housing organization was accountable for a man’s death.

They Said It

Island County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Cliff filed her decision Thursday, ruling that the factual misrepresentations in Freeland Concerned Citizens’ lawsuit fall short of being “egregious conduct…”

The exception, Cliff wrote, was the unfounded assertion that LIHI was responsible for the death of a guest at the Freeland motel that LIHI purchased.

“The court finds as fact that the attribution of responsibility for the death to defendant LIHI was made without adequate inquiry or investigation and, further, that it was made for the improper purpose of vilifying plaintiff FCC’s opponent,” Cliff wrote.