EVERETT — He’d been on the bench for just five years when he found himself at the center of a storm.
Three-year-old Eli Creekmore was dead. The boy’s father was on trial for murder, accused of kicking the boy so hard that the child’s bowel ruptured. Darren Creekmore had refused to help his son for hours as the little boy slowly died.
People across the country were horrified and angry. They demanded changes after details emerged how state caseworkers allowed Eli to remain with his father despite repeated abuse.
The 1986 murder was making headlines across the nation, and all eyes were on Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight.
“Everybody was watching what was going on in his courtroom. The attention was so widespread. It was certainly the biggest case I ever tried. Judge Knight was just so calm,” said Kenneth Cowsert. He prosecuted the case and now is a Superior Court judge.
That calm demeanor would become one of Knight’s trademarks over the more than two decades he presided over some of the county’s most high-profile cases. He also would become known and respected for being a thoughtful trial judge who balanced compassion with a no-nonsense approach to the law.
He expected a lot from the lawyers. He also expected a lot of himself, believing people deserved his attention and diligence no matter if the case made headlines.
Today is Knight’s last day on the bench. He is retiring after 28 years as a Superior Court judge.
“I love it. I truly do,” Knight said. “I enjoy human beings. It’s the entanglements that they can get in. They are never-ending. It’s been my job to help them legally and civilly resolve those entanglements.
“I see every character of human beings on a daily basis. I see the full gamut of emotions. I enjoy humanity with all its warts,” he said.
Knight, 67, has lived in Snohomish County for 35 years. He and his wife, a schoolteacher, raised two daughters here.
He became the county’s first full-time court commissioner in 1980. He was appointed a Superior Court judge two years later. The governor now is expected to appoint someone to fill Knight’s vacant position.
Knight has shown such respect for the position, Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry said.
“He’s been extremely careful and cautious in terms of not wanting to do anything to besmirch the role of a judge,” said Castleberry, who attended law school with Knight at the University of Washington.
He is a kind and considerate man and he has been a thoughtful and deliberate judge, Castleberry said of his friend.
Knight has been a mentor to many on the bench. He respected his colleagues’ ability to make decisions but was willing to share his experience with his fellow jurists, Superior Court Judge Michael Downes said.
Downes, a former deputy prosecutor, tried numerous cases in front of Knight, including some complicated murder trials. Knight was a solid trial judge who knew the rules and understood people.
“He had a keen eye to get to what was really going on with cases,” Downes said.
While his colleagues say Knight has a great sense of humor, he rarely showed that side in the courtroom.
“He didn’t tolerate Tom-foolery,” longtime Everett attorney Mitch Cogdill said.
He understood that those appearing before him took the issues seriously, so he did, too.
Lawyers knew that they should be prepared before entering Knight’s courtroom. The judge undoubtedly would be well-read on the case and the law, Cowsert said.
“I expect when lawyers come into a courtroom that they will be professional and be very staunch advocates for their clients,” Knight said recently.
If the justice system doesn’t have a class of skilled professionals, the truth may not emerge, he said.
Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said he always was nervous trying cases in front of Knight.
“I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted Judge Knight to think I did a good job,” Roe said.
Knight was at his best during trials, his colleagues and attorneys said.
“He liked the certain give and take that goes on in a trial setting, and he was well-suited for it,” Castleberry said.
Attorneys could count on Knight to remain calm even during some of the most gut-wrenching trials, Downes said. The former deputy prosecutor recalled how Knight’s professional attitude prevailed in the courtroom during Teresa Gaethe Leonard’s murder trial in 1998. Gaethe Leonard was convicted of killing her estranged husband during a trial filled with bizarre twists and turns.
Knight “sat up there so calm,” Downes said. “He didn’t need to get wound up to prove that he was in charge. I have tremendous respect for the guy. Day in and day out, he’s solid as a rock. You could always count on him for a reasoned, well-though out decision.”
Knight oversaw thousands of cases over his nearly three decades on the bench, including some that broke new legal ground. He presided over one of the first trials in the state in which prosecutors moved to submit DNA as evidence, as well as one of the first cases tried under the sexually violent predator act. More recently, Knight handled the trial of Everett police Officer Troy Meade, the first cop in the county to be charged with murder for a line-of-duty shooting.
Some cases have stuck with Knight over the years; some for how they challenged him, others for what they taught him about people.
Knight said he was struck by the collective cry from the community over Eli Creekmore’s death. People were outraged by the suffering endured by the little boy. Knight had to go to Spokane to find a jury because of all the pre-trial publicity in Snohomish County.
“The more visible, the more controversial, the more I try to focus — it’s like getting in a zone,” Knight said.
Once Creekmore was convicted, Knight had to decide his sentence. Prosecutors urged Knight to go beyond the standard range, which would have sent the child killer to prison for only 16 years. Knight gave Creekmore 60 years, a sentence that withstood appeal. The killer isn’t eligible for release until 2035.
Later, Knight said he came face-to-face with evil. He presided over the trial of Michael Ray Hightower, a serial rapist accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a 19-year-old woman in 1981. Investigators tied Hightower to the crime after he attempted to kill a nurse in south Snohomish County.
“That was the first and only time in my courtroom where I sensed I was looking at a truly evil presence,” Knight said. “There was an evilness that I saw when I looked in his eyes.”
Knight also presided over the 1993 trial of Michael Green, a convicted rapist accused of murdering 12-year-old Brenda Gere. The girl went missing in 1985. Her remains were discovered six years later on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. The case was complicated by a lack of physical evidence and a jailhouse confession that came under attack.
Knight sentenced Green to life in prison. At the sentencing, Knight allowed Elaine Gere to approach her daughter’s killer. She looked him in the eye and called him a monster.
The judge also recalls the destruction caused by Barbara Opel, an Everett woman who recruited teens, including her daughter, to kill a man for money in 2001. It was Knight’s first and only capital murder trial. Opel could have been the first woman in the state to be executed. Jurors, however, said she should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Despite the messes people make in their lives, Knight says he believes in redemption. He doesn’t presume that anything he says to a defendant will change their path, but he has spoken to people with the hope that they are listening.
“People are people,” Knight said. “I remind myself I’m seeing only a small sample of the human population.”
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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