Five questions for prosecutor candidate Michael Dorcy

1. Why do you want to be elected as county prosecutor?

I started in criminal prosecution as a part-time Assistant City Attorney for the City of Shelton in 2000 when I was still a Rule 9 Intern in a position that also involved working in civil litigation and other legal areas. I quickly gravitated toward criminal prosecution in part due to the pace of litigation and in part due to the fact that I found reward in serving my community by pursuing justice. I have been with the Mason County Prosecutor’s Office since January 2004, I was first elected in 2010, and I continue to find value in pursuing justice within my home community. 

2. What are the biggest issues the prosecutor’s office faces in the next term?

The biggest issues we are facing currently are three-fold. First, it is proving very difficult coming out of the period of court suspension predicated on the State’s COVID response, which has created a daunting backlog of cases. Second, changes in the law, either imposed by the State legislature or created by the State Supreme Court, have created the need for significant shifts in how criminal cases are investigated and prosecuted and also opened up a great many cases that were once long completed. And third, as with many sectors but particularly problematic in the criminal justice system, it is becoming more difficult to recruit and retain law enforcement officers and deputy prosecutors, which impacts the institutional knowledge and experience base of sectors throughout criminal justice and therefore impacting the ability to effectively pursue justice, accountability, rehabilitation, and public safety. 

3. What are your qualifications to be elected as county prosecutor? 

I grew up in this community, and I have established my own family here. I am a graduate of Westmont College (BA – 1997) and Willamette University College of Law (JD – 2001), and I have been working in criminal prosecution for more than twenty years. I have successfully prosecuted nearly every type of criminal case imaginable, and I have worked diligently with other stakeholders to establish and grow our therapeutic options and other alternatives to traditional prosecution. Over the past twelve years I’ve built a strong civil division that advises and represents Mason County and which has successfully navigated some of the most complicated and unique civil litigation challenges that county governments face.

4. How have recent court decisions and legislative actions affected the prosecutor’s office?

I addressed this somewhat above, but specifically there are two main areas. First, the responses of the Washington Supreme Court and Court of Appeals to the case of Miller v. Alabama (U.S. Supreme Court) has reopened many old cases for resentencing where “youthful offenders” (which is a term that continues to evolve but, in some circumstances seems to extend to at least age 25) were sentenced to long prison sentences for crimes like Aggravated Murder and First-Degree Murder. Second, the case of State v. Blake (Washington Supreme Court), which invalidated the statute criminalizing hard drug possession, has resulted not only in the loss of what was a valuable interdiction tool for drug treatment and rehabilitation as well as criminal investigation of drug traffickers, but also has required the vacating of convictions back to the 1970s and resentencing hearings and refunding of criminal fines for hundreds of cases. I can’t help but guess there is a connection to the precipitous rise in overdose deaths as well.

5. If elected, what are the most important measures or metrics which you’d want your office to be judged?

This is an historically difficult job which has become increasingly more difficult over the past ten years, and I would love for my Office to be judged by our commitment to seeking outcomes that adequately provide justice for crime victims, promote fairness to the criminally accused, create opportunities for rehabilitation for those motivated and in need, and that deter future criminal behavior and enhance community safety.