WA: Why a sex offender would run for office: Willie Russell’s story

[washingtonstatewire.com – 8/20/19]

Willie Russell is running for the Snohomish County Council this year. He squeaked through the August primary, and will face Stephanie Wright in November for Council position 3.

He is also a Level III sex offender. You can read the narrative from the sheriff’s office database here.

I recently spoke with Russell in an extended conversation. I wanted to ask him about his interest in running, and about his campaign. But, I was particularly interested in understanding why, with his background, he would be willing to put himself out there in the public domain.

My story is not a lot different from thousands of other people. Let’s start with the elephant in the room: my conviction.

Russell says he brought forward a complaint against then-Judge Gary Little and Pastor Donald Barnett of Community Chapel Bible Training Center. Both of whom, Russell says, were involved in the sexual abuse and misconduct of his children.

Read more

 

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Submissions must be in English
  2. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  3. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  4. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  5. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Always use person-first language.
  6. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  7. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  8. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  9. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  10. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  11. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  12. Please do not post in all Caps.
  13. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  14. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  15. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  16. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  17. Please do not solicit funds
  18. No discussions about weapons
  19. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  20. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  21. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  22. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  23. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I commend this many for his courage. He will get shamed and humiliated by his opponent as is the standard procedure in politics. But this is what it takes, to go public. Every oppressed group had to eventually stand up publicly and say no more, which inevitably causes a visceral reaction from those who want to keep them down. But this is what it will take. I hope I have the courage when my opportunity is presented.

Eric, I hope that I can help pray you forward when the opportunity comes. And it will! Many Blessings to you…

All RCs should move to the state with smallest population, and run for office.

What kind of a platform can a RC run on? The platform that stands on the RC might actually be the best one to use! Most problems are either a leadership issue or a systems issue. We have become victims of a bad system but that can also be said for most citizens in some form. We need to use that truth to fight back.