Judge denies Eyman associate’s motion to dismiss campaign finance enforcement suit

Tim Eyman’s asso­ciates William Agazarm and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions will remain defen­dants in a $2.1 mil­lion cam­paign finance enforce­ment law­suit against Eyman’s ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry, Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge James Dixon ruled today.

Agazarm and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions had asked Dixon to dis­miss the law­suit against them and award their lawyer Mark Lamb (who also rep­re­sents Eyman) attor­ney’s fees.

“The State’s com­plaint is replete with sound and fury direct­ed at Mr. Eyman, but at its con­clu­sion there is no basis in the cit­ed statutes to hold Defen­dants Cit­i­zen [Solu­tions] and Agazarm liable for his alleged con­duct. According[ly], we respect­ful­ly request the court dis­miss the State’s pros­e­cu­tion for fail­ure to state a claim and grant attor­ney’s fees and costs to Defen­dants Agazarm and Cit­i­zen [Solu­tions] pur­suant to RCW 42.17A.765(5),” Lamb wrote in his pleading.

But Dixon refused the request, issu­ing an oral rul­ing deny­ing their motion.

The State main­tains that Agazarm and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions aid­ed Eyman in his law­break­ing and there­fore need to be held accountable.

“Mr. Eyman mis­led the pub­lic and con­trib­u­tors who thought they were donat­ing to one ini­tia­tive, but instead were sup­port­ing Mr. Eyman’s per­son­al expens­es and a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent ini­tia­tive,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son said in a state­ment after the ver­dict. “That could not have hap­pened with­out the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Mr. Agazarm and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions. Today’s deci­sion is a vic­to­ry for trans­paren­cy, and allows the case to pro­ceed toward tri­al with all respon­si­ble parties.”

It has been near­ly five years since Sher­ry Bock­winkel filed the com­plaint with the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion that led to this law­suit. The PDC took over six months to decide to inves­ti­gate, and then more than two years to con­duct the inves­ti­ga­tion. After find­ing mul­ti­ple seri­ous appar­ent vio­la­tions, the PDC referred the case to Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son for investigation.

Fer­gu­son’s office then spent more than a year con­duct­ing its own inves­ti­ga­tion before fil­ing a law­suit against Eyman, Agazarm, and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions back in March.

At every turn, the PDC and Fer­gu­son’s office were ham­pered by stonewalling in the extreme. State attor­neys were final­ly forced to go to court last sum­mer in an effort to get their civ­il orders enforced. They were suc­cess­ful, and the inves­ti­ga­tion resumed — at sig­nif­i­cant cost to Eyman and his asso­ciates.

Eyman con­tin­ues to deny wrong­do­ing and is try­ing to raise $600,000 for a legal defense fund to counter what he calls a “stun­ning witch hunt”. The Muk­il­teo based ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer says he’s bor­rowed against his house in order to seed the fund.