Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas is under investigation by the Washington State Bar Association for two ethics violations alleged to have occurred during his term in office.
On September 1, 2018 we filed a public records request for documents containing information about Mr. Haas being the subject of any investigation by the Washington State Bar Association. The response to the request was delayed with the explanation that additional time was required to consider whether any exemption would permit documents to be withheld. That request is still open.
The response indicates that (1) Mr. Haas’ office does have documents covered by the request and (2) he is under investigation. Otherwise, we would have been informed that no documents exist responsive to the request.
We have learned independently that our deduction is correct: Michael Haas is in fact under investigation.
That investigation concerns two charges of conflict of interest. We have not obtained this information from the party or parties filing the complaints, but from another source that has been consistently reliable on other matters and is well-placed to know these facts.
In one case, Mr. Haas, who was a defense lawyer in private practice, is alleged to have continued to represent a criminal defendant after his election up until the time he was sworn in. Once in office he continued to negotiate with the new defense counsel and instructed a prosecutor to sign an agreed order remanding the case to District Court so that defendant, his former client, could get a new sentence.
In the other case, he is alleged to have had a conflict of interest in the prosecution by his office of a relative, in which Mr. Haas ordered a prosecutor to dismiss the case, then dismissed it himself against the judgment of that prosecutor.
Both those matters—though not the existence of the bar association investigation—were previously known to the Port Townsend Free Press. We had learned of them roughly about the time we began our investigation of Mr. Haas’ handling of the McAllister rape case, which we reported in a four-part series that can be read in sequence at this link.
These conflicts of interest are alleged to violate the following provisions of the Rule of Professional Conduct:
RPC 1.11 SPECIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST FOR FORMER AND CURRENT GOVERNMENT OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES
(a) Except as law may otherwise expressly permit, a lawyer who has formerly served as a public officer or employee of the government: (2) shall not otherwise represent a client in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee, unless the appropriate government agency gives its informed consent, confirmed in writing, to the representation.
RPC 1.16 DECLINING OR TERMINATING REPRESENTATION
Comment [1] “A lawyer should not accept representation in a matter unless it can be performed competently, promptly, without improper conflict of interest and to completion.”
We asked Mr. Haas if would confirm or deny that he is under investigation, and, if he is under investigation, to explain why. He has not responded to our request.
We learned today that the investigation has been temporarily suspended until after the election. This is pursuant to a rule of the Washington Supreme Court. The investigation will resume after November 6.
On a related note, in the Jefferson County Bar Association poll of the judges and lawyers who know and work with Mr. Hass in the courthouse, he scored extremely poorly on the question of integrity. As we previously reported, only 27% of his professional peers rated him “acceptable”; 53% found him lacking in integrity.
We now know for certain that public documents contain information about Mr. Haas’ investigation by the Washington State Bar Association. Our reporting on this matter will resume after the release of those documents.
Related: Mr. Haas has also faced two Public Disclosure Commission complaints in recent months.
PDC Closes Complaint Against Prosecutor Haas with Reminder Not to Break the Law
[This report has been edited to correct typographical and style errors]
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.
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