EVERETT — A Snohomish County deputy prosecutor was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence over the weekend.
The deputy prosecutor, Elliot Thomsen, 35, posted $2,500 bond about 11 hours later.
In 2021, Thomsen had been suspended from his job for five days for withholding evidence in a drug trial. He kept his job, but he was reassigned within the office.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Jason Cummings said he’d been told about the arrest over the weekend.
“Needless to say this is very concerning; concerning for the individual involved, for the office, and for the public,” Cummings wrote in an emailed statement Monday.
Hours before the hearing, Thomsen had been in court handling felony cases, including a domestic violence burglary. He also prosecuted at least one DUI and at least one murder case this year.
Thomsen declined to comment when reached Monday on his office phone line.
Around 1:45 a.m. Saturday, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy focused on investigating driving under the influence cases noticed a truck stopped at a red light at the intersection of Broadway and Pacific Avenue in Everett, according to the deputy’s report. The truck was a couple blocks from the county courthouse and jail.
The truck was in the left turn lane and had license plates that expired four days earlier, police wrote. The left-hand turn light turned green, but after four or five seconds, the vehicle did not move.
The driver eventually began to turn left very slowly, according to the report. There weren’t any cars, animals or pedestrians in the way.
The deputy started to follow the truck and noticed it began to drift in the lane, as it headed west on Pacific past the jail. The deputy pulled over the car, according to the report. Police identified the driver as Thomsen.
A “very strong odor” of alcohol emanated from inside the truck, according to police. Thomsen had a “blank stare” on his face and seemed impaired, the deputy wrote.
The deputy reported having to ask questions multiple times because Thomsen was slow to respond to them. The other passenger “had to answer for him since (Thomsen) didn’t,” the deputy wrote.
Once out of the truck, police put Thomsen in custody. Police read the prosecutor his Miranda rights.
“Lawyer,” he responded.
The deputy called a public defender, who spoke with the suspect.
“After their phone call I was informed (Thomsen) would refuse the breath test,” wrote the sheriff’s deputy, Chris Mashburn.
The report didn’t say who that lawyer was, or whether Thomsen had hired private representation since then.
Thomsen refused a breathalyzer test. A Cascade District Court judge approved a search warrant to obtain Thomsen’s blood. A sample was obtained around 3:25 a.m.
Police booked Thomsen into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of DUI, a gross misdemeanor. He had posted bond by 1:34 p.m.
Court records suggest Thomsen had no apparent history of traffic violations.
State bar association records show Thomsen has been certified to practice law in the state since 2015.
In May 2021, Thomsen withheld information that could have implicated another suspect in a drug ring trial, a violation of case law under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brady v. Maryland.
A public defender called the case “just a cesspool of issues.”
In the aftermath, then-Prosecutor Adam Cornell wrote a nine-page letter disciplining Thomsen, suspending him for five days and reassigning him to nonviolent felonies.
As of this year, many of the cases he prosecuted focused on domestic violence.
In the DUI case, the current prosecutor, Cummings, noted formal charges had not been filed as of Monday, and that his office “will not be involved with the criminal process.”
“As for the administrative process,” Cumming said, “we will follow the required procedures.”
Cummings added it would be “premature” to comment on whether Thomsen would face internal discipline, “as we have yet to receive all information related to this matter.”
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @snocojon.
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