EPHRATA — Allegations of lying and a cover-up have emerged in the Grant County Prosecutor’s race, soon after ballots were delivered to mailboxes for the Nov. 3 election.

The election pits D. Angus Lee — who was appointed interim prosecutor in January — against Albert Lin, one of his deputy prosecutors. The winner will serve through next year, and would run in November 2010 to keep the job.

Along with a charge of covering up a judge’s vehicle collision, opponents have raised questions of Lee’s handling of two driving-under-the-influence cases in light of Lee’s own DUI charge in 1997. The charge resulted in a negligent driving conviction when Lee was 20 years old.

“These are nothing more than cheap political attacks, and everyone knows it,” Lee said Friday. “What you have are desperate acts by a campaign that has yet to articulate one positive change (to be made) to the office.”

But Lin said issues of honesty and integrity that have been raised by the public are important issues in this race. It’s not the 12-year-old DUI charge, he said. “What’s troubling to me is his conduct as prosecutor. ... The prosecutor is an officer of the court, and we’re public servants. We expect our public servants to be honest,” he said.

This week another Grant County deputy prosecutor — Teddy Chow — accused Lee of trying to cover up a vehicle accident involving a Grant County judge in June, then lying about his knowledge of the incident at a public forum.

The accident involved District Court Judge Richard Fitterer, who police say sideswiped a vehicle in Quincy. The judge told police he didn’t know he’d hit anyone. Police said the victim didn’t want to pursue charges.

But Quincy Police did send a report to the prosecutor’s office, and Chow said he personally told Lee about the incident the day it happened.

Chow issued a public statement accusing Lee of lying after the Columbia Basin Herald quoted Lee saying, “My office has never received any information of any kind” about the judge’s accident.

Chow said he issued the statement because the state’s rules of professional conduct for attorneys require him to report anything that raises questions about another lawyer’s conduct.

“Mr. Lee made it clear to me and the two or three deputy prosecuting attorneys I was with, that we were not to discuss the judge’s case, and that we were to keep it very quiet,” he wrote.

Chow also wrote that Lee called him into his office after the judge’s accident was raised at an Oct. 13 forum, yelled at him and told him to write down everyone he had spoken with about the matter.

Lee said Chow has been against him as prosecutor since he was appointed last year.

As for the quote in the Herald, “What I was talking about was actual reports, and to the best of my knowledge, we hadn’t received any reports,” Lee said. “I found out later that Mr. Chow had held (the police report) from me for the last several months,” he said.

He added that in order to have a cover-up, there has to be a crime, and even his opponents agree the judge didn’t commit a crime.

As for concerns that he went too easy on two Grant County residents convicted of DUI, Lee said both men were convicted of felony DUI, and it’s common for prosecutors to recommend sentences that are under the statutory maximum.

“That’s a worst-case scenario of what the judge could sentence under law,” he said. “It’s really inappropriate for anyone to challenge how a specific case was handled unless they’ve pulled the case and made the analysis of provability at trial.”

He said opponents held onto information about his own DUI since last year. “I acted foolishly, certainly. But this is about 2010,” he said.

Until now, debates had centered around experience. Except for DUI cases that have risen to a felony level because of prior driving-under-the-influence convictions, Lee has never tried a felony case.

Lin said he’s been prosecuting violent felony crimes for the last nine years in Grant County, and recently successfully convicted Grant County’s first controlled-substance homicide case.

Lin said he’s concerned about deputy prosecutors who were fired, asked to leave or forced out since Lee took over. “We’ve lost many, many years of experience, and lawsuits have been filed,” he said.

Lin added, “I only have one agenda, and that is to protect the people of Grant County against violent offenders.”

Lee said the prosecutor’s job is largely a management position, and there’s no difference in the skills required to go to trial in a misdemeanor case compared to a felony. He said his 90 percent conviction rate for cases he’s taken to trial shows his skill level.

He said voters should be looking at his record as prosecutor. That includes cutting $90,000 from the budget while increasing the number of deputy prosecutors from 10 to 13.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com