Judge David Grant, the presiding judge of Whatcom County District Court, yesterday submitted his letter of resignation effective July 1st. I am still trying to get a response from the District Court administrator and a copy of the letter, but I understand from a courthouse source that Judge Grant gives as his reason family matters.
Judge Grant has another year and a half of service in his elective office. This resignation is totally unexpected. He is one of our two District Court judges, Matthew Elich being the other. District court hears all the lesser court cases in the county and towns, and is not to be confused with Superior Court for major crimes and issues.
The timing of this, when Bellingham Municipal Court is shut down and with city hall aggressively trying to take control of the staff of the Municipal Court, immediately raises the question of coincidence or whether something else is going on that we the public do not know about.
With this vacancy, the County Council will have the responsibility to appoint a judge to serve until the 2022 November election. This is - especially given the turmoil in Municplal Court - an emergency appointment. Under the normal procedure of courts, the District Court would handle all the small cases that the Bellingham Municipal Court instead handles.
Update 7 pm:
We have posted the resignation letter of Judge Grant, with the link just below at the end of this article. The District Court administration provided the letter this afternoon. In it, Judge Grant explains how this resignation is simply because it is “… time to close this chapter of my life…”. The further explanation all points to this being for personal reasons and not related to the Municipal Court legal mess.
Comments by Readers
Ray Kamada
Jun 03, 2021Dunno what’s going on, but it’s a heckuva coincidence.
Shawn Alexander
Jun 03, 2021I for one will miss Judge Grant on the bench. His wit and intellect made a joy to try a case in his court, which is very rare.
John Servais
Jun 03, 2021Now 3 pm and still the Bellingham Herald has nothing on this news. I have word that the county court system was - and still is - trying to keep this resignation quiet. The Herald often cooperates with local government agencies to not post news, so this seems to fit into that mode. But Google News has picked up on this NWCitizen article and has a link to it. The question is - why does our court system want this kept confidential? The Herald does have a new article posted about McDonald’s hiring summer help.
Dianne Foster
Jun 03, 2021So far, reading only the extensive Herald articles, I am inclined to side with the mayor, (though I"m not happy with his allowing our historic homes in Sehome to be bulldozed for real estate vulture Hammer Properties, but that’s another subject.). I have worked in jobs with abusive managers, and sympathize with the workers and union that are protesting this abuse, and it appears that Judge Lev is at least an enabler, if not a perpetrator of this treatment. So the workers have no one to appeal to, other than the City. What else could they do? Sometimes you have to go outside the system to whistleblow.
NWCitizen Management
Jun 03, 2021Dianne, wrong article. If you want to post this comment over under Judge Lev sues the city article, then I can delete the comment from under this article. - John Servais