Tim Fennessy says vote for him because he is experienced, respected, and effective. Public records prove otherwise.
Experienced? Or Out of Touch?
In 2021, Fennessy was reversed by a higher court for telling a person disabled by mental illness to just "put his mind to it" and get a job, even though "[t]he only expert witness opinion testimony submitted at trial was that [the person] is disabled." As the current chairman of Spokane's Behavioral Health Advisory Board and over a decade working with the mental health community, Andrew will not base his decisions on debunked myths concerning mental illness.
Fennessy has been repeatedly reversed by higher courts for other bad decisions:
- violating the freedom of the press,
- letting a criminal defendant languish in jail even though the evidence was plainly insufficient,
- allowing inadmissible and overly prejudicial evidence to be submitted to a jury,
- prohibiting a qualified expert witness from testifying in a trial,
- improperly dismissing a malpractice lawsuit against a lawyer,
- improperly punishing a party for bringing a non-frivolous motion in good faith,
- improperly instructing a jury on the law, resulting in an expensive retrial,
- ignoring the black letter of a binding contract,
- ordering a party to pay money they did not legally owe,
- allowing a party to raise a new claim at trial without giving the other side an opportunity to respond,
- admitting an improperly obtained confession in a criminal trial
Tim Fennessy is making it harder for regular people to access the court. Earlier this year, Fennessy voted with a majority of Spokane's superior court judges to change Spokane's local court rules to prohibit parties from e-mailing proposed orders and "bench copies" of documents to judges. Instead, all documents need to be "physically" delivered to the judge on paper. Previously, individual judges could decide whether to accept electronic copies.
For parties living in the City of Spokane, this rule change may not be a substantial hardship, but not everyone with business in superior court lives in Spokane. People in other counties and other states are routinely parties to cases in Spokane. When some court deadlines provide as few as 3 days for filing, U.S. mail is not an option for delivering physical documents. That is why every superior court in every county surrounding Spokane permits e-mailing documents to their judges: Lincoln County, Ferry/Stevens/Pend Oreille Joint Judicial District, Whitman County. If elected, Andrew will work to bring Spokane up to date with modern practices.
Individuals who have had cases in front of the superior court and in front of Fennessy have been writing to inform you how his decisions have hurt hard working people:
- https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/oct/04/letters-for-friday-oct-4-2024/
- https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/oct/08/letters-for-oct-8-2024/
Listen to your fellow voters and vote for change.
Not Respected: Fennessy Is Not Trusted to Decide Sensitive Cases
In Washington, both sides to a case have the right to remove one judge from the case, for any reason. In most cases, the parties do not exercise this right, except when assigned to Tim Fennessy. Public records show that since 2019, Tim Fennessy has been removed from over 400 cases.
Fennessy has been removed from more cases than the next four most disqualified judges combined. Between 2019 and June 2024, one-third of all disqualifications were filed against Fennessy. In just 2024 cases, Fennessy has more than two-thirds of all disqualifications. When Fennessy was assigned to the family law docket, he received more than half of all disqualifications filed in family law cases. In criminal law, the lawyers routinely disqualify him from cases of sexual assault, child abuse, and other matters of a sensitive nature. Spreadsheets documenting all disqualifications from 2019 cases through June 2024 cases can be downloaded here:
Lawyers do not want their cases in front of Fennessy because of his poor demeanor. When asked about these reports, Fennessy told the Spokesman Review this May he "hasn’t heard complaints about his demeanor." In June, Spokane's head public defender set the record straight and told the Spokesman Review lawyers "did have complaints about Fennessy’s tone" and that he had in fact "discussed the issue with Fennessy." Fennessy has yet to explain why he lied to the Spokesman Review in May.
Andrew has proven that he is to be trusted with the most sensitive of cases. As a prosecutor, Andrew routinely handled sensitive and complex criminal cases. Andrew knows how to work compassionately, but also honestly, with crime victims and their families, as well as with criminal defendants and their loved ones.
Not Effective: Fennessy Violates Your Constitutional Right to a Speedy Decision
Spokane County Superior Court is hurting. While annual filings are down, cases are taking longer than ever to complete. According to the 2024 Calendaring and Court Efficiency Study completed by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), Spokane had 3,135 family law filings in 2019 and finished 87% of cases within 10 months. But, by 2023, only 71% of cases were being finished within 10 months, even though filings had dropped more than 20% to 2,491. National standards state 90% of family law cases should be resolved within 10 months.
Participants in that same NCSC study blamed these delays on "inefficient judges," unorganized dockets, judges invoking local policies "arbitrarily," judges condoning "delay tactics" by bad lawyers, and the "general design" of Spokane's court system.
Fennessy is one of those inefficient judges complained about in NCSC's efficiency study. Article IV, sec. 20, of Washington's Constitution gives judges 90 days to issue a decision after a case has been submitted to them. Over and over, Fennessy has violated this constitutional right of the people. In 2019, Washington's Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly disciplined Fennessy for violating this constitutional right in multiple cases.
Today, Fennessy is still violating this constitutional right. Documents disclosed under Washington's Public Records Act revealed over 80 cases between December 2023 and July 2024 in which Fennessy took 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, or longer to sign orders submitted to him, even though the Constitution requires these orders to be signed within 90 days. A spreadsheet of recent cases in which Fennessy has violated this constitutional duty can be downloaded here: Late_Orders.pdf
Andrew holds your constitutional rights in the highest regard. As a prosecutor, Andrew managed a caseload of hundreds of cases without missing deadlines. As a staff attorney at the Court of Appeals, Andrew has worked to change the court's procedures to make sure deadlines are never missed. Multiple redundant check are now in place and all cases are triaged within days of coming to the Court of Appeals to make sure time sensitive matters are expedited. As a superior court judge, Andrew will continue to ensure decisions are made promptly and within constitutional time limits.