City Attorney Attacks Judge Vaddadi

Another Judge Calls Out The City Attorney's Lack of Cooperation

Right Wing Cancel Culture Run Amok

The Honorable Pooja Vaddadi was elected to the bench in 2022 in a landslide, turfing out the incumbent Presiding Judge. She presented a thoughtful, progressive approach–focused on competence, fairness, and restorative justice.

Honorable Judge Vaddadi, Seattle Municipal Court

This is, of course, too much for Seattle’s openly MAGA City Attorney. Starting this Spring, she has used a little known and even more rarely used tactic to disqualify Judge Vadaddi from presiding over any criminal cases. To defend this, Publicola reported that Davison’s office claimed Judge Vaddadi 

. . . often reversed other judges’ findings of probable cause or failed to find probable cause “in situations where, clearly, probable cause exists,” releasing people accused of DUI and domestic violence without considering their criminal history or the severity of the offense . . . “The resounding input from attorneys that have appeared in her courtroom is that her decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding, or perhaps even intentional disregard, of the evidence rules, even on basic issues.”

These are, of course, serious claims. But after months of reporters probing for evidence, the MAGA City Attorney and her office has presented literally zero evidence to support them. (It feels vaguely reminiscent Rudy Guiliani’s promise to prove voter fraud—always forthcoming, never coming forth). 

In a new development, the Honorable Vaddadi just returned from parental leave and released a searing rebuttal, sharing it with the City Attorney’s Office, the Seattle Municipal Court, and publishing it in the Stranger. If an oped strikes you as odd—it shouldn’t—since she is an elected Judge and is accountable to the electorate.

I encourage you to read it. As someone with a Juris Doctorate myself, I have to say–this is a great reminder of why Vaddadi is the judge and these other folks have the job of trying to persuade her. It’s a great piece of legal writing, and it makes me envious of the Seattle University Students who had her as a writing Professor. 

As you might expect, she systematically decimated the claims presented by the city, highlighting first the overtly false statements, and then rebutting the four accusations made by the memo.

Vaddadi’s colleague, Damon Shadid, who was elected with an even bigger super-majority, joined the chorus and blasted the anti-democratic approach of the City Attorney’s office. Shadid pointed out that this whole charade is hampering the business of the court (which has an enormous backlog!). He even told a reporter that “he has spoken directly with the [City Attorney’s Office] to try to understand what the [Seattle Municipal Court] can do to help remedy this situation and the [City Attorney’s Office] has refused to engage.”

Accordingly, Judge Shadid released the following statement:

Ann Davison has at many junctures proven herself to be an incompetent ideologue, in addition to actively recruiting for the insurrection party alongside insurrectionists after January 6th. She should reverse course, and Seattle should do the same and vote her out of office next year.