Legal Ethics
Lawyer Accuses Opponent of Disdainful Stares in Candidate’s Deposition
Posted Oct 30, 2008, 12:03 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A gubernatorial candidate in Washington maintained he didn’t violate campaign finance laws during a deposition Wednesday that was marked more by the lawyers’ rancorous disagreements than revealing testimony.
The Seattle Times reviewed the transcript. “There were raised voices, stare-downs, threats to call a judge, accusations of defamation, orders not to lean across a table and profanity,” the newspaper reports. “And that was just between the lawyers in Dino Rossi's deposition.”
Rossi’s lawyer Mike Patterson accused lawyer Mike Withey several times of staring at him with disdain. After a break, Patterson said Withey had told him to "shut the [expletive] up," the newspaper reports. Patterson told another lawyer, Knoll Lowney, to stop yelling at him and leaning toward him across the table.
Lowney responded that the table is 6 feet wide. “I don't think I'm threatening you, and don't suggest that I am," he said.