Four attorneys aspire to prosecutor's office

By Rod Antone
Yakima Herald-Republic

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Though it'll be months before Yakima County Prosecutor Ron Zirkle leaves office, three internal candidates and one assistant U.S. attorney have already expressed interest in his job.

The likely candidates are:

* Senior Deputy Prosecutor Ken Ramm, a 20-year foot soldier in the office who handles mostly Lower Valley felony cases and is viewed by his peers as the front-runner for Zirkle's job.

* Senior Deputy Prosecutor Mike Laws, a Yakima County prosecutor for eight years who currently supervises the juvenile unit.

* Senior Deputy Prosecutor Troy Clements, who has been with the county for four years and prosecutes felony cases in the criminal division.

* Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Hagarty, a former Klickitat County prosecuting attorney and Skamania County chief criminal deputy who has been prosecuting federal criminal cases at U.S. District Court in Yakima for seven years.

All four say the retention of deputy county prosecutors is a top concern.

Ramm said staff turnover and caseload is an "ongoing challenge," one he didn't have to deal with 20 years ago when he started in the prosecutor's office.

Laws said that whoever succeeds Zirkle "is going to have to work with the (county) commissioners to come up with some sort of plan for the prosecutor's office."

"Otherwise, they'll keep losing people," he said, "and that will have an impact on major cases."

Clements says high turnover has hurt morale when the average deputy prosecuting attorney already has "80 to 120 cases pending trial at any given time." He hopes he and other younger prosecutors will have a chance to run the office in the future.

"We've got a lot of people, senior DPAs (deputy prosecuting attorneys) that are on their way out, potentially leaving in the next couple of years," he said.

Hagarty said he's been urged by law enforcement officials from Yakima police, Washington State Patrol and other agencies to run for Zirkle's position. Their complaint, he said, is that "criminal cases are not being given a priority" at the county level.

"I think what they want is a more aggressive prosecutor's office, and to get more aggressive people in there, you need to retain prosecutors who are experienced," he said. County officials "are going to have to find a way to pay their talent."