Police Raid On Attorney's Office Decried -- Rebuffed Prosecutor Goes To Second Judge For Warrant To Search For Missing Money

A police raid on the office of a Port Angeles defense lawyer last week was outrageous, unnecessary and holds frightening implications, says an official of a state criminal-defense-lawyer group.

"This is turning justice on its head," said Lenell Nussbaum of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "Prosecutors are beginning to believe that because lawyers represent criminals, they themselves are criminals."

On Thursday, Clallam County sheriff's deputies carrying a search warrant combed through desks, filing cabinets and records at the office of attorney Karen Unger. Papers filed in court Monday say they were searching for $1,500 stolen from a Port Angeles man last month.

Prosecutors say they believe Unger got the money from Stacey Richards, 40, of Port Angeles, who has been charged with stealing $20,000 from her father's safe.

Unger referred questions to Ron Ness, an attorney representing her, who called the raid a "personal vendetta" against Unger for her tenacious work on behalf of criminal defendants. "She's a very aggressive defense attorney and doesn't kowtow to the prosecutors."

Clallam County Prosecutor Dave Bruneau yesterday dismissed that allegation as "silliness."

"Most, if not all, criminal-defense lawyers are irritating," he said. "That's no reason for anyone to search their offices."

Court papers indicate Unger herself may be considered a criminal suspect if she possesses stolen property, but she has not been charged and Bruneau would not comment on whether charges are contemplated.

Ness said Unger is contemplating a federal civil-rights lawsuit against those who conducted the raid. Her practice was damaged, he said, because deputies could have seen confidential information dealing with numerous clients.

Bruneau said law offices should not be off-limits to crime investigators. "Some people may want to characterize this as rogue cops running amok, but that's not the case."

The search was authorized by an Island County Superior Court judge after a judge in Clallam County said it would be improper.

According to court papers, Richards told detectives she paid $1,500 in $100 bills to Unger shortly after the theft to cover legal fees for a friend in jail on an unrelated case.

Bruneau said it was a reasonable conclusion that the money paid to Unger was stolen property and deputies had a right to look for it. Detectives felt the cash might be recognizable because of the distinct way the stolen $100 bills had been folded.

In turning down the search-warrant request, however, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams said deputies could not show probable cause that Unger still had the $100 bills, because she likely would have deposited them in a bank account.

Because searching an attorney's office could expose sensitive documents, Williams advised deputies to contact Unger and ask her to provide the evidence if she had it.

After an unsuccessful visit with Unger, Bruneau said, detectives again applied for the search warrant - this time in Island County.

Ness accused prosecutors of shopping around for a judge who would agree with them; Bruneau said he wanted a judge who had not already taken a position.

One issue under debate is whether at the time of the search, the woman being investigated was a client of Unger's.

Bruneau says that because no theft charges had been filed against Richards and the money was paid for someone else's legal fees, Unger did not, at that point, have a confidential attorney-client relationship with Richards. Instead, he regards Unger as a material witness in the theft case.

Unger, however, said Bruneau has no way of knowing or proving when her attorney-client relationship with Richards began.

Of particular concern to the defense-lawyer group, Nussbaum said, is that if Bruneau's action goes unchallenged, any attorney with a client charged with theft might risk a police search on the grounds that fees might be paid with stolen money.

Nussbaum, past president of the group and now head of its public-education committee, said she knows of no other case in the state in which a criminal-defense lawyer's office was searched for evidence.

Bruneau, however, said it has been done twice before in Clallam County in his 15 years as prosecutor there.