Haugen’s ties

could lead to misdemeanor charge

The plastic sign hung briefly from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad trestle over Auburn Way South on July 4, so briefly that few people saw it or read what it said: “Will the last business in downtown Auburn please turn out the lights?”

Clearly an attempt at wry humor that somebody felt they had to share about Auburn’s business climate.

But city officials weren’t amused.

Now, Auburn Council member Virginia Haugen could be in hot water for what a police inquiry has revealed about the part she played in the prank.

Haugen denied any involvement in the trespassing onto railroad property. But because she at first told investigating officers that she knew nothing about the sign – which inquiry showed was not true – Haugen is now looking at the more serious charge of obstructing a police investigation, a gross misdemeanor in state law and the city’s code. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine, though Haugen is unlikely to incur such a penalty based on her record.

Police uncovered Haugen’s role when they discovered that she had ordered the sign and paid for it. As the city’s attorney’s office represents individual council members, including Haugen, it cannot prosecute the case. City Attorney Dan Heid said he expected this week to forward the results of the police investigation to an as-yet-unnamed prosecutor’s office for possible filing of charges.

“My official response is it’s an ongoing police investigation,” Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis said Tuesday.

Here is Haugen’s version of events:

Haugen said last fall she overheard a business owner she would not identify say he wanted to make his own version of the famous billboard that appeared at the time of the 1969 Boeing layoffs. Haugen said that several people standing nearby overheard the remark and laughed, and no one appeared to take it seriously. But for months afterward, people kept working it into conversations.

Months later, Haugen said, the same businessman handed her two $100 bills and asked her to have two signs made, which she did. She picked them up in March, gave them to him and, she said, forgot about them. One day while she was at that same place of business she asked about the signs and somebody showed them to her. Another businessman whose name she also would not reveal told her he wanted to set the signs up somewhere.

“We put the signs up in the back of his truck, and I never saw them again,” Haugen said. “I didn’t know where he was going to put them. It was my understanding he was going to put them up somewhere in the business district, if not on Main Street or on the Cavanaugh building.”

Haugen said she didn’t even know one of the signs had gone up until days after it occurred. She got her first whiff of trouble when the executive assistant to the mayor, Tamie Bothell, pulled her out of a public works committee meeting July 7 and told her the police wanted to talk to her.

She asked Bothell on the way out of the Council chamber if it was an emergency. Bothell said she didn’t know.

“I panicked because I have three children, two grandchildren and three sons in law. I was called into a conference room and absolutely stunned to be looking up at three uniformed officers and detectives,” Bothell said. “I told them a phone call would have sufficed and that I would have been more than happy to talk with them. I told them I didn’t really know who helped put the sign up. I never even saw it, but it must have taken several people to do it.”

Haugen admits she misled police when they first questioned her about the matter, or as she prefers “bullied” her. She said she was intimidated.

“No, I wasn’t candid with them because I had no idea where they were coming from,” Haugen said.

Police want to know names and the whereabouts of the second sign, but Haugen is defiant.

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

Haugen added that she considers the whole affair a distraction for a city that has serious problems it needs to address.

“This all started because some business people were concerned about the mess the city has made of the downtown,” Haugen said.

Lewis said Haugen is not likely to lose her seat on the council.

“Unless council members are incarcerated, judged mentally insane or have died, they remain in office, and even with some things you’re incarcerated for, you’re still in office,” Lewis said.