Judicial Candidate Touts Career Prosecutor Experience

Bronson Faul, candidate for Yakima County District Court Judge Position 4, sat down for an interview at the Sunny Spot Restaurant in Sunnyside, Washington. Among the reasons he gave for voters to consider him for the position, is his history as a career prosecutor.

Bronson Faul For Yakima County District Judge Position 4

“Of the three candidates for this position, I am the only one that is actively prosecuting crime in court on a daily basis.” said Bronson.

He said that in this valley, this is very important. Last year, 78% of voters renewed a one-cent sales tax dedicated to law and justice in Yakima County. Bronson said “This tells me that the community is sick and tired of gangs, and crime in general.”

Bronson is currently serving with the City of Yakima, prosecuting crime there. Formerly, he was with the Yakima County Prosecutor's Office. His experience as a prosecutor has helped to shape his views of the law. Examples he gave of this, are training law enforcement officers, and also conducting ride-a-longs with officers. He said this experience has helped him to understand their perspective when they bring cases to the court for prosecution.

Another benefit of his experience as a prosecutor is that “I always get to do the right thing for the community.” said Bronson. He pointed out that defense attorneys and representatives for corporations sometimes have to represent the interests of their clients, instead of the community at large.

Because of legal restrictions on judicial candidates, Bronson would not say how he would rule on gang crime cases. However, he did reiterate that he has past experience being tough on gang crime, and is very aware of the gang war going on in the valley. One trend that is particularly troubling to him, is older gang members encouraging and forcing younger kids to carry guns, and commit crimes with them.

He said the reason they do this is because they believe that the young ones will not get severe sentences for crimes because they do not have a long criminal history. In response, the office where he currently works has taken a tougher stance when it comes to sentencing, asking for maximum punishments even for first offenses involving guns. Bronson said this is helping to reduce crime.

Two areas that Bronson feels he could make an impact after being elected are in reducing crime, and also in making the court more efficient. He described to me how smarter sentencing of the small percentage of troublemakers causing a disproportionate amount of crime can actually reduce the overrall crime rate in the community. In addition, he sees several promising areas where new uses of technology can streamline court operations, and save taxpayers money.

Bronson has collected a number of endorsements from elected officials in Yakima County as he seeks the District Judge Position 4. 15^th District State Senator Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), as well as 15^th District State Representatives Bruce Chandler (R-Granger), and David Taylor (R-Moxee) are endorsing him. Yakima Mayor Micah Cawley, Zillah Mayor Clark, and a number of others are supporting his election effort as well.