Tacoma prosecutor’s office considers charges against Auburn City Councilmember Haugen

The City of Tacoma’s prosecutor’s office was expected to decide by the end of the week whether to charge Auburn City Councilmember Virginia Haugen with obstruction of justice.

Haugen faces possible charges for failing to cooperate with police looking into an incident of trespassing and the posting of a sign on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad property July 4.

Auburn City Attorney Dan Heid forwarded the case file to the Tacoma prosecutor because he represents members of the City Council and prosecuting one would constitute a conflict. Tacoma agreed to take it Tuesday, July 29.

“A decision will be made this week,” Tacoma Assistant City Attorney Jean Hayes said Wednesday. “If indeed we decide to file charges, they would be filed in Auburn Municipal Court,” adding that that is the correct jurisdiction.

Obstructing a police investigation is a gross misdemeanor in state law and the city’s code, carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Haugen is unlikely to incur such a penalty based on her record.

Haugen’s problems began with the plastic sign that hung briefly from the railroad trestle over Auburn Way South on the Fourth of July. The sign read: “Will the last business in downtown Auburn please turn out the lights?”

While no one claims Haugen trespassed onto railroad property or had anything to do with actually putting the sign up, she got into trouble by telling officers at first that she knew nothing about the sign, which investigation showed was not true.

Haugen said several businessmen unhappy with “the mess the city has made of the downtown,” gave her the money to pay for two signs. She said she ordered them, used the cash given her to pay for them and picked them up.

Haugen conceded she was less than candid with police at first when they first questioned her about the matter, or as she preferred to say “bullied” her. She said she was pulled from a public works meeting to respond to what she was told was an emergency and feared something had happened to her family.

She told the Auburn Reporter that she panicked.

“They want to prosecute the persons who did it, but I am not going to give them the names,” Haugen said. “I told them if you want to subpoena me, and this lands in court, fine, please do. I am not worried about it.

“... I am very embarrassed about the whole situation,” Haugen added.