Business as usual was Dan Satterberg's first official act after Bill Sherman conceded the prosecutor's race. That was to announce no formal perjury charges will be filed against the WSP lab manager for falsifying official documents and signing them under penalty of perjury. The excuse was that (I paraphrase) "no harm was done".

As a Libertarian this excuse really bothers me. Juries are given the impression that the type of evidence Ms. Gordon was responsible for is highly accurate. Now the prosecutor's office is arguing that there is no evidence the results were not accurate.... But there is not much to suggest her work was accurate either. More importantly, there appears to be clear evidence that the lab manager committed perjury in connection to her "sloppy" work, and prosecution should be a slam dunk. If you lie and sign your name to the lie, and below your signature it says "signed under penalty of perjury" then you have committed a crime, even if you work for the police. I don't see how Satterbergs office can say that no harm was done.

On another level I am annoyed by the hypocracy of the KCPAO. They will stick it to an activist citizen who obviously did not intend to defraud the public, but wanted to protest and expose the local politico-legal system for what it is, yet they will not prosecute a police manager for intentionally committing perjury on a scale much larger than Ms. Balogh's misrepresentation.

Satterberg's office could have announced their intent for this perjury case months ago, it is a shame that they waited until moments after the election was in the bag to do so. It is also a disappointing reminder that it will be hypocritical business as usual in good old King County, with no end in sight.