Arian Noma in the race for Okanogan County Prosecutor

PATEROS – Arian Noma, an associate in the office of Thomason Law & Justice in Pateros is running for the Okanogan County Prosecutor’s office against incumbent Branden Platter.

Noma recently answered some questions submitted by the Quad City Herald regarding his qualifications for the position and goals if elected.

1. You were one of the earlier candidates to announce your intent to run for office. Was there a particular circumstance(s) or individual(s) that influenced your decision to declare? If so, what or who were they?
After 14 years of prosecution and defense litigation spanning Okanogan County, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., I observed firsthand through my cases that a number of individual’s Constitutional Rights were being violated by Karl Sloan, and currently Branden Platter’s office.  I firmly believe that the Government cannot and should not stretch the law in order to punish violators of the law and especially those who were falsely accused and innocent in the first place.  Client after client, and citizen after citizen conveyed their stories of injustice to me regarding the current administration and Karl Sloan who hired and trained Mr. Platter.  After living in Okanogan for only four years, it is shocking to know that the prosecutor’s office is being sued in court for violating people’s constitutional rights.  My observations and the community’s experiences encouraged me to run for office in an effort to bring change and reform to the system.

2. What would you identify as the principal areas where you take issue or disagree with your opponent?
 • I believe in fair trials and the full protection of the Bill of Rights for all accused. • I believe all serious crimes should be prosecuted, and common sense should be employed regarding less serious offenses that occur based on conduct that we as a society did not consider criminal even 10 or 20 years ago. • I know how to employ proven methods that will help prevent crime and reduce recidivism, saving the taxpayer money.
I do not believe in seeking excessive bails from the court for persons with the sole goal of forcing people to plead guilty simply to get out of jail because they cannot afford bail. • I do not believe in withholding evidence from the defendant and their lawyer at any time and will provide all evidence as soon as it can be turned over to the defense. • I believe that we should do everything we can to follow Senate Bill 6550 by encouraging the resolution of as many juvenile cases as possible without affecting the child’s record. • I believe that the current costs of the justice system are economically unsustainable and we cannot afford to pay $40,000/year for each person housed in our jail, especially for less egregious offenses such as driving with a suspended license. • I believe that the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement should be in constant communication.  The current candidates for Okanogan County Sheriff feel that communication should be improved as well. • I believe that all Defendants have the Constitutional Right to confront those who accuse them of crimes and I will not rob people accused of crimes of this trial right.

3. Are there current practices in the principal areas of concern that the prosecutor should address?
 Yes.  The prosecutor should:
 A. Ensure finite resources are devoted to the most important law enforcement priorities, i.e. murders, sex offenses, etc. B. Promote fairer enforcement of the laws and alleviate the disparate impacts of the criminal justice system through the exercise of discretion. C. Ensure just punishments for low-level, nonviolent offenses such as community-based programs and therapeutic courts; we will attempt to correct behavior for these offenses without incarceration. D. Bolster crime prevention and reentry efforts to deter crime and reduce recidivism. E. Strengthen protection of vulnerable populations such as children, the senior community, and victims of crime.

4. In Okanogan County what do you see as the principal areas of concern that the prosecutor should address?
Property and Drug related crimes need to be addressed immediately. The drug epidemic has attacked America for the past 40 years. Over incarceration for these offenses as opposed to aggressive treatment, has led to an explosion of the national and local incarceration rates, and after forty years of paying for it, the taxpayer can no longer afford to continue to waste tax dollars on the revolving door of prison stays for low level drug offenders. Furthermore, as long as the addicted population cannot self-sustain basic necessities such as housing, food, and healthcare, and law enforcement does not focus directly on these.

5. As a former Assistant State’s Attorney from a large metropolitan area, what do you believe are the strongest qualities you will bring to a rural county on the opposite side of the country?
I practiced all over the state of Maryland, including prosecuting as an Assistant State’s Attorney’s in Carroll County, Maryland. Carroll County is an agricultural community much like Okanogan. However, whether in the large metropolitan areas, Carroll County, Okanogan, or any other city or county in America, everywhere has the same problem; Drug Crimes and Property Crimes related to those drug crimes. Cutting my teeth as a prosecutor in Baltimore City, I am extremely familiar with major drug crimes and the problems and conditions that flow from drug crimes. I know how the problem affects entire families; not just the addict. I know how difficult it is to help a loved one taken by addiction. I know punishment is only one small facet to helping a drug addict take the road to recovery and abstinence. I also know and understand that our criminal system was never designed to house drug addicts at a rate higher than violent offenders, which strains our prison resources causing the tax burden to sky rocket. I know that property crimes need to be a major focus in our community and victims deserve reimbursement for their losses when criminals damage or steal their property. It is imperative that we begin to employ actual strategies that work to reduce property crimes, and we must develop community supervision to supervise property crime offender’s behavior upon release from incarceration.

6. Do you see particular local cases or problems that your legal background makes you especially equipped to address?
I believe that State v. Jon Devon, No. 24958-1-III and other cases involving murdered children and other serious violent offenses should be retried and not pled down to manslaughter with sentences of time already served. If elected, I will not make any plea deals with any persons convicted of murdering children. I believe that Senate Bill 6550 involving new laws encouraging prosecutors to find any alternative means to incarceration for juvenile offenders in order to reduce recidivism. With extensive experience in all criminal prosecutions including juvenile offenses, I am qualified to handle any cases in the prosecutor’s office. Whether prosecuting or defending in Maryland, Washington, D.C., or Washington, I have prosecuted or defended about every type of criminal case pertinent to Okanogan County. My experience makes me not only tough on crime but smart on crime.

7. Finally, do you have any observations or comments to add about the Okanogan Prosecutor’s Office that have not been addressed in the above questions?
My opponent’s tour of duty demonstrates a pattern of overcharging small crimes, ignoring serious crimes like the murder and rape of children, and aggressively prosecuting minor crimes, while violating people’s Constitutional Rights in order to achieve convictions by way of plea agreement. My opponent claims to care about victims, yet the victims that I have spoken to often state that they did not feel involved in their cases and that they never really spoke to the prosecutor. Whether true or not, I vow that if elected, I will change this perception. All people will feel listened to and treated fairly as the ultimate goal is to promote public safety by reducing and preventing crime through avenues that allow for punishment while also allowing rehabilitation and redemption.