By Jefferson Robbins / iFiber One News
WENATCHEE — The trial of a former Snohomish County deputy prosecutor charged with groping a co-worker on a business trip to a lawyers’ conference at Lake Chelan is set for Nov. 9.
Christopher J. Dickinson, 55, was arraigned last week in Chelan County District Court on a charge of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.
Dickinson has pleaded not guilty. He faces another trial Nov. 8 on a separate charge of physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated, which allegedly occurred during the same conference weekend in June.
Dickinson, of Arlington, was fired July 3 by Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe after an internal investigation into the events at the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys’ training conference.
At an after-hours gathering in a lakeside hotel room, Dickinson allegedly groped the breast of a female coworker and attempted to pull her onto his lap. He was photographed at the same event with a different woman, his girlfriend, who was intoxicated and apparently unconscious, lying on his lap with her breasts exposed.
Later that night, Chelan County sheriff’s deputies encountered Dickinson in the company of his girlfriend, who is a Snohomish County juvenile probation counselor. She allegedly was drunk and attempting to operate a motorboat on the lake.
The girlfriend, 36, of Arlington, was cited with boating under the influence. Dickinson was not arrested. While the girlfriend was being interviewed and held at the Chelan sheriff’s substation, deputies said they found Dickinson waiting for her behind the wheel of a parked car outside the office, with a blood-alcohol content of 0.153 percent.
The woman who alleged that she was groped by Dickinson reported it to Chelan County investigators July 3, after disclosing it to Roe. The Snohomish County internal investigation was forwarded to Chelan County detectives. A second deputy prosecutor received a written reprimand for taking photos at the party that included the unconscious woman, and then showing the images to others in the group.
Dickinson told Snohomish County investigators he was “blackout drunk” at the time of the Chelan incidents and was coping with alcoholism, according to the internal report. In Dickinson’s firing, Roe cited a report of an additional workplace violation on a separate date, in which Dickinson showed a sexually explicit photo to another staff member in the prosecutor’s office.
Fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation is a misdemeanor.
This story originally appeared in iFiber One News, an online news outlet based in Wenatchee and Ephrata.
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