Tim Eyman steals a chair from Office Depot
Tim Eyman steals a chair from Office Depot

Last month, in what has become one of the most infa­mous inci­dents of shoplift­ing in Wash­ing­ton State his­to­ry, dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er and polit­i­cal scam­mer Tim Eyman was caught on cam­era tak­ing a Bren­ton Stu­dios May­hart Chair from Office Depot with­out pay­ing for it. The City of Lacey, not amused by Eyman’s “I did­n’t steal because I did­n’t mean to steal” rou­tine, charged Eyman with theft.

Today, Eyman plead­ed not guilty to that charge, even though the video evi­dence clear­ly demon­strates that he did the crime (and should thus do some time):

Tim Eyman walks out with office chair

We all know what the right wing thinks should hap­pen to law­break­ers like Eyman: No mer­cy! Throw the book at them! Impose the harsh­est pos­si­ble punishment!

“Crim­i­nals don’t abide by the law. Bring back the death penal­ty and make ‘crime pay’.” — Gary, a “law and order” con­ser­v­a­tive from Yaki­ma who was fea­tured in a recent newslet­ter pub­lished by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bruce Chandler

After Eyman’s plea of not guilty was entered for him by his attor­ney, he was ordered by the court not to have any con­tact with the Office Depot in Lacey that he stole the chair from. How­ev­er, Eyman has already been back to the store: he even cre­at­ed a video with the help of a friend show­ing him attempt­ing to return the stolen chair, which he was told to turn over to the Lacey Police Department.

After giv­ing the stolen chair to Lacey Police, the video shows Eyman going back to the Lacey Office Depot and buy­ing an iden­ti­cal Bren­ton Stu­dios May­hart chair.

How­ev­er, it appears that at least for the imme­di­ate future, Eyman will not be set­ting foot inside the Lacey Office Depot, at least unless he desires to dis­obey a judge and get into even more trou­ble than he already is.

Eyman’s next court date in this crim­i­nal case is April 16th. His next civ­il court date is tomor­row, when he will be appear­ing before Judge James Dixon in the main State of Wash­ing­ton v. Tim Eyman cam­paign finance enforce­ment suit.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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