By Scott North
Herald Writer
MOUNT VERNON — A lawsuit brought by backers of a breakaway government that calls itself Freedom County was dismissed Friday, but it will be coming back soon in another form, the group’s recently hired attorney said.
Tim Robbins, a civil attorney who lives in Island County and has offices in Everett and Stanwood, said he expects to file a lawsuit soon that will assert Freedom County backers’ longstanding claims that they legally severed ties with Snohomish County in 1995.
Robbins said he has no stake in whether Freedom County legally exists and is simply functioning as an attorney hired by the group to appropriately make their legal arguments.
"It needs to be resolved, and I think that is one thing we need to agree on," Robbins said of the Freedom County issue.
Friday’s hearing came after Thom Satterlee, an Arlington-area man who claims to be chairman of the Freedom County commissioners, filed a lawsuit in Skagit County on May 14 trying to force Snohomish County to cooperate with his secessionist government.
Satterlee, who is not an attorney, asked the court to order Snohomish County to conduct an audit of all its assets, liabilities and debts in preparation of what Freedom County backers contend is an inevitable divorce. A Skagit County judge instead signed an order requiring Snohomish County officials to appear Friday and explain why they don’t recognize Freedom County.
Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer on Friday granted Robbins’ motion to dismiss Satterlee’s lawsuit, without prejudice. That means the issues raised by Freedom County backers can be brought back at any time.
Robbins said that will happen in the near future, in the form of another lawsuit.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Gordon Sivley said Friday’s dismissal puts Freedom County in the same place it was before Satterlee filed the May lawsuit. The breakaway government doesn’t exist, he said.
"It’s going to be an uphill push" for Robbins to make legal arguments to the contrary, Sivley added.
Freedom County’s purported boundaries encompass about 1,000 square miles, nearly half of Snohomish County’s entire area. Satterlee and some other Freedom County proponents believe the new county has existed since April 1995, when they presented the Legislature with more than 12,000 signatures calling for its creation. Satterlee also contends he was elected a commissioner while on the bus ride to Olympia.
But the state Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court have repeatedly ruled that Freedom County does not exist. A federal lawsuit brought by Freedom County proponents also was tossed out of court.
The state Supreme Court in February 1998 ruled that the mere act of gathering signatures on petitions does not create a new county. But that ruling was made as part of the court’s review of an attempt by backers of another group to form a breakaway county in King County.
Freedom County backers have maintained their situation is different, largely because petitions calling for creation of a new county here were worded differently.
Robbins said he thinks that Freedom County backers may have a valid argument.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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