LIVING: Pencil artist prepares for show. A10
Record South Whidbey
SATURDAY, JULY 21, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 58 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Huden trial enters jury deliberations BY BEN WATANABE Staff reporter
Ben Watanabe / The Record
James Huden listens to his defense attorney, Matt Montoya, during the seventh day of his trial in Island County Superior Court.
COUPEVILLE — Now comes the wait. Through eight days of jury selection, arguments, cross examinations, rebuttals and closing statements, the fate of James Huden is in the hands of 12 Island County citizens. Closing arguments in the trial of Huden, who Island County prosecutor Greg Banks alleges killed Russel Douglas in December 2003, finished Friday afternoon. The jury was read its instructions and sent to the jury room in Island County Superior Court by 1 p.m. Friday. Banks recalled his opening argument in which he declared the murder to be an assassination, and described the events. “The evidence is in, and most assuredly, the evidence has shown what I said to be true,” Banks told the jury. “Mr. Huden did assassinate Russel Douglas the day after Christmas (2003) in a remote location on Whidbey Island.” “This case is also about heroes. I submit to you that Bill Hill is a hero ... he had to choose between loyalty to his best and closest friend and what his conscience told him.”
Banks also called Keith Ogden, a former friend of Huden’s who turned in the alleged murder weapon (a Bersa 380 semiautomatic handgun), a hero. Ogden testified to teaching Huden how to operate and clean the pistol, as well as silence it with a pillow or plastic soda bottle. Neither Ogden nor Hill were familiar with Whidbey Island or the crime, and were motivated to testify against Huden because of their consciences. “There was something up here that he had to make right,” Banks said of Hill. Matt Montoya, Huden’s defense attorney, asked the jurors to think critically about the testimonies and evidence. He questioned a lack of evidence regarding cell phone records placed by Huden or the alleged accomplice, Peggy Thomas, around the time of the murder. Montoya also pondered the timing and location, as well as the assertion that Huden was abused as a child which was also rebuffed by Montoya. “No one — no one — can put Mr. Huden on Whidbey Island on Dec. 26, 2003,” Montoya said. “You haven’t heard any evidence that supports he See trial, A8
District 1 candidates face off in Clinton By JIM LARSEN Record editor
Jeff Lauderdale put a little distance between himself, the tea party, and even the Republican party in front of an audience of more than 100 citizens at the Clinton Progressive Hall Wednesday night. Probably the favorite of the Island County Republican Party to unseat incumbent Democrat Helen Price Johnson for the District 1 commissioner position, Lauderdale opened his remarks by saying, in effect, he’s his own man. “I’m not an automaton for the Republican Party and I make my own decisions,” Lauderdale said. Democrats have tried to typecast him as a tea party type, but the mustachioed former Navy commander boasted of his scientific and leadership background. “I headed the Trident building program of $23 billion,” he said of the Trident submarines, some of which carry nuclear missiles and are based at Bangor across Puget Sound. A mechanical engineer whose
wife has roots on Whidbey Island dating back to 1968, Lauderdale suggested the county is making some decisions on insufficient evidence. He called for “a scientific explanation for our dollars, so we don’t solve problems that simply don’t exist.” As a case in point, he picked on the county’s mandatory sewer system inspection programs. Generally, all gravity septic systems have to be inspected every three years, and alternative systems, often located along the shoreline, must be inspected every year. He said those alternative systems are reliable. “It makes no sense to me,” Lauderdale said. Later, referring to state lawmakers, he said, “I’d stand on their desks until they change the timing.” Lauderdale also criticized the expensive sewer system once proposed for Freeland to protect Holmes Harbor that was closed to shellfish harvesting and swimming. The state is now considering reopening the waters, even without the sewer plant. He wasn’t all negative, however,
Jim Larsen / The Record
Jeff Lauderdale, Republican, tells the crowd that he will make his own decisions if elected to the Board of Island County Commissioners. crediting Price Johnson for balancing the budget in difficult times. Lauderdale has been attending commissioner meetings regularly since he announced he would run early last year, first gaining public attention as an opponent of the way the statemandated septic system inspection program was implemented. Price Johnson stood her ground, saying when she was elected in 2008 as the county’s first woman commissioner she “navigated some very
Jim Larsen / The Record
Incumbent Democrat Helen Price Johnson defends her record during her first term as the District 1 commissioner.
rough waters” economically. She told her personal story of growing up on the island and running the old Jones Department Store in Langley, and then starting a construction business with her husband, raising kids and serving on the school board. “Our quality of life was threatened,” she said, explaining what prompted her to seek the office. She made no apologies for mandatory septic inspections or the Clean Water Utility fee levied on land par-
cels. “The future of our islands is at stake in this election,” she told the mild, polite crowd of mostly older people. “We’re fragile environmentally and economically. I love this community and want it here for my children and grandchildren.” She also took the opportunity to refute charges she supported a $40 million sewer system for Freeland. A trip to See Candidates, A13