15th District incumbent Taylor pleaded guilty to DUI

YAKIMA, Wash. -- State Rep. David Taylor says he's learned his lesson from a drunken-driving arrest in 2003.

"I recognized it as a mistake at the time and decided not to plea down ... simply took responsibility for it and moved on," Taylor said in a telephone interview.

Taylor, a 37-year-old Republican from Moxee, is running to retain his 15th District seat in the state House of Representatives. He was appointed in March to replace Dan Newhouse, who resigned to accept a job as director of the state Department of Agriculture.

Though he is unopposed in the Republican primary, Taylor's name is on the Aug. 18 ballot.

The DUI conviction in Kittitas County District Court in Ellensburg came to light when the Yakima Herald-Republic reviewed criminal and civil court records for candidates in this and other races.

Ellensburg police arrested Taylor about 2 a.m. Dec. 28, 2003, after an officer saw his truck stop well past the stop sign at Fifth Avenue and Pearl Street.

After field sobriety tests, Taylor provided breath samples of .163 and .170, more than double the .08 threshold for drunken driving, according to the police report.

The city's prosecutor later amended that down to .14 for reasons that were not clear in court records.

DUI cases involving alcohol readings above .15 can result in greater jail time and fines, and they can lead to a driver's license being revoked instead of suspended.

Taylor said Friday he recalled that the official result was amended because of a problem with the initial reading.

Fran Chmelewski, an Ellensburg attorney who prosecuted the case for the city of Ellensburg, did not return phone messages left at her office since Friday.

******

Taylor said he was in the Ellensburg area for a friend's wedding when he was arrested. After the wedding, he headed downtown for something to eat, then planned to go to a home where he had arranged to stay the night.

He was only a couple of blocks away from the home when he was stopped, but he stressed that he was not trying to make excuses for the bad judgment call that led him to drive.

"There are no excuses," he said.

He was ordered to pay about $1,900 for a fine and other court-ordered charges. Although he had planned to serve 15 days on electronic home monitoring, he eventually served a day in the Kittitas County jail as part of his sentence.

He said that made it easier to accommodate a scheduled cattle drive that he was working on.

Taylor was working as Kittitas County planning director at the time and said he was not disciplined for the arrest by county commissioners. Taylor said he left the Kittitas County job about four months later, in early 2004, because he decided to start a land-use consulting business that he and his wife continue to run.

He said he did not disclose the arrest to county commissioners in the 15th District when he applied and interviewed for the legislative appointment, although he discussed it privately with a couple of commissioners when they asked about it. The 15th District includes all or part of Yakima, Klickitat, Skamania and Clark counties.

Max Golladay, chairman of the Yakima County Republican Party, said applicants were not required to disclose their criminal history, if any.

Golladay, who was a Kittitas County commissioner at the time of the arrest, said Taylor informed him soon after he had been arrested.

"Dave's up front about everything. He's not bashful," Golladay said Tuesday.

Taylor said the arrest has not had an impact on his abilities as a state lawmaker.

He said he no longer drives if he has had more than two drinks. His wife, who typically avoids alcohol when out in public, takes the wheel, he said.

He said he believes the average voter can understand that he made a mistake and paid the price for it.

"The way I was raised and the way I raised my kids, if you screw up you take responsibility for it and not try to weasel out of it," Taylor said.

* Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.