Longtime prosecutor is fired after judge finds him in contempt for alleged disrespect
Image from Shutterstock.com.
A longtime deputy prosecutor in Spokane County, Washington, has been fired after a judge held him in contempt for an alleged argumentative tone and disrespectful attitude in an evidence dispute.
Kyle Treece, a senior attorney in the prosecuting attorney’s office, was fired Oct. 18, the Spokesman-Review reports.
Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel held Treece in contempt and fined him $500 in an Oct. 3 hearing. The judge said he was basing his findings on Treece’s “disrespect, rude interruption, insolence towards the tribunal and a refusal to follow [the] court’s lawful instructions.”
Hazel said Treece had a “condescending and argumentative tone” when Hazel barred Treece from introducing surveillance video in the case of a woman accused of tying up and robbing the grandmother of her ex-boyfriend. The defendant allegedly left the grandmother’s home in the grandmother’s Subaru Impreza.
The judge said Treece interrupted him about a half-dozen times in the dispute. When Hazel told Treece that he was acting inappropriately, Treece allegedly replied, “I think raising your voice is inappropriate, your honor.”
Treece apologized to the judge Oct. 11.
Treece told the Spokesman-Review that the contempt finding had a role in his firing. “This has been my career,” he told the publication. “I’m disappointed with what happened, but I wish the office well.”
