Count and Court

I think I've spent almost as much time at the Pacific County Courthouse in South Bend this week than I have at home. I don't mind so much, as I usually have pretty good luck when there. Today I was up to watch the county auditing crew open and count ballots for the primary election. Here in Washington it's all mail-in balloting, so they start receiving a few weeks before the actual election day, and so they have volunteer crews come in and open twice a week. In fact, come election night it takes them all of about two minutes to give the results after the polls close.


Earlier this week I was in Superior court to photograph Brian Brush's competency hearing. It has been nearly a year since he was arrested for allegedly gunning down his ex-girlfriend in downtown Long Beach. Today the judge ruled that he is in fact competent to stand trial and will finally be arraigned 8 days before the one year anniversary of the crime. Unlike his previous times in court, he was a lot more interested in looking around at who was in the court, which led to some different pix that I've gotten in the past of him. He looks a lot different from then, as he has lost more than 100 pounds (due to an apparent hunger strike during part of this last year) and a scraggly beard. The pic below isn't as sharp as maybe I'd like, but he has a rather ghostly look to him that I thought interesting.




-DKM