Coupeville attorney Craig Platt is challenging longtime Island County Judge Vickie Churchill for her spot on the bench.

It was an unexpected surprise — for some. Platt filed as a candidate for Island County Superior Court, Position 2 late Friday and said Monday that people have been encouraging him to enter the race.

Platt said the idea was born more than a decade ago when then-Judge Richard Pitt asked him if he was interested in a spot on the bench.

"That was 16 years ago," Platt recalled.

"I often asked myself what would have been. But I felt too young then. Now I am ready," he said.

Platt said he hopes to help bring the Island County court system into the 21st century.

"I'm hoping to improve on court room technology. There have been huge advances," he said, and the changes include allowing people to enter pleadings digitally.

Platt most recently made headlines when he defended Randi Shelton, the woman accused of driving under the influence and causing the collision that killed Karen Gervais-Boone of Greenbank.

Platt challenged DUI test results done by the Washington State Toxicology Laboratory after inconsistencies came to light at the state-run lab. County prosecutors, however, noted the inconsistencies were related to breath tests, while the evidence in Shelton's case came from a blood test.

Shelton decided to plead guilty in an eleventh-hour move after more than a year of delays in her case.

Platt didn't say if he believes that the controversial strategy in the Shelton case would cause trouble on the campaign trail. He said discussing particular cases was inappropriate.

Platt earned his law degree from Stanford Law School and has practiced law for 26 years, 18 in Island County. He came to Whidbey Island in the early 1990s and started a public defender firm that was later expanded to a regular attorney's office.

Churchill has been a judge in superior court for Island and San Juan counties since 1997.

The position is nonpartisan.

Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or mmarxwheatley@southwhidbeyrecord.com.

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