Wrongly arrested petitioner hires attorney. I-2066 qualifies – read Bruce Guthrie’s humble congrats to Let’s Go WA for their achievement.

Tues, July 2, 2024

To: Our thousands of supporters across the state

From: Tim Eyman
Fighting for Taxpayers for 27 years

Bruce Guthrie released the following statement this morning:

When it comes to my false arrest and civil rights violation for collecting signatures at a public park, I have decided to retain Mark Lamb, a well-respected and experienced attorney w/ Carney, Bradley, Spellman law firm in Seattle, to represent me.

Of all the attorneys I talked to and all who were recommended, I feel Mark is the best choice because of his experience, his calm demeanor (which I can really relate to), and his track record of fiercely fighting for his clients.

I will be signing the letter of representation this week.

I am proud that I will be represented by such a principled, courageous attorney who will fight to protect my right — and everyone’s right — to peacefully petition in Washington state.

As many of you know, I have been a volunteer signature gatherer for Initiative 2066 and I was wrongfully arrested for collecting voter signatures at a public park in Edmonds a couple of weeks ago.

I was proud to do so. I had every right to be there — I was peacefully exercising my rights.

The Arts Festival signed a contract (see Section 2.3) that acknowledged and recognized and guaranteed that the park was a public forum and First Amendment activities would not be hindered or infringed.

Nonetheless, one of the organizers of the event called the Edmonds police that showed up in force and ordered several petitioners, including me, to leave.

All of them left except me because I believed I had to stand up for our rights.

For doing that, I was handcuffed, arrested, criticized, shoved in the back of a police car, driven to jail, booked, strip searched, and detained for hours in a jail cell filled with criminals until my wife secured the money to bail me out.

It was an experience that was embarrassing, demeaning, scary, and painful both physically and emotionally.  

Our first step is to try to convince the prosecutor to not pursue these unjustified criminal charges against me — I have no criminal record. 

Our second step is a lawsuit against those responsible that is sizable enough so this kind of travesty of justice never happens to anyone else ever again. 

And I want to make this very clear: if there is a money judgment, none of it will go to me or my family.

I will be donating every dollar I receive to political causes I believe in.

But out of this darkness, there is light — I am thrilled to learn this morning that the Initiative 2066 campaign has announced that they made it (325,000 valid signatures were needed, Secretary of State recommends 405,000, they are at 423,000 now with 3 days left).

I am very proud to have played a small and yet positive role in the Initiative 2066 campaign. I collected and turned in 137 voter signatures as a volunteer signature gatherer for I-2066. I would have collected more if not for my false arrest.

I congratulate Brian Heywood — a real hero — and his amazing team of courageous people at Let’s Go Washington for qualifying I-2066 for the November ballot.

I’m going to try my best to make it down to Tumwater to join in the celebration.

I want to thank everyone who sent emails to Edmonds’ officials — I think you really helped.

I will make sure to keep everyone updated as this progresses.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement — it means a lot to me.

— END —

Bruce’s courage and sacrifice should inspire us to do more. 

It certainly did for me — I dropped off another one of my batches of petitions yesterday.

I compliment the King County GOP in Bellevue for making it so easy to drop off petitions:

I urge you to find a location near you (click here) and drop off your petitions in the next couple of days.

If you need anything else, you can contact the heroes at Let’s Go WA here.

Is it any wonder why Bully Bob Ferguson is trying so hard to impose a lifetime ban on all my future political activity?

He’s wasted more taxpayer money going after me than all other cases in the last 12 years COMBINED! 

I urge you to help me fight back against the AG’s abuse of power by donating to the Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund so we can get this ridiculously unconstitutional ruling overturned.

Mail your check to:
Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund
17404 Meridian Ave E #F PMB 176
Puyallup, WA, 98375

Or donate online:
By GiveSendGo (credit/debit card)
By Paypal (donate using PayPal or using a credit/debit card)

With your help, I will keep fighting for the people across our nation with initiatives, lawsuits, lobbying, and helping elect more freedom-loving elected officials.

I love you all.

Onward!

Tim Eyman

You can call or text me anytime: 509-991-5295

You can email me anytime: Tim@TimDefense.com
(I can’t access any of my other email addresses — grrr!)

For more details on this, go to: TimDefense.com