Nathan Rouse, a public defender in Seattle, is throwing his hat into the ring to unseat incumbent City Attorney Ann Davison.
As we shift back into defense-against-the-constant-onslaught-of-attacks-on-human-rights mode, otherwise known as a Donald Trump presidency, Rouse believes Seattle needs a city attorney who will not kowtow to President Donald Trump, but will stand up to him one lawsuit at a time. He argues that Davison’s tough-on-crime approach has failed. If elected, Rouse, who identifies as a “progressive prosecutor,” pledges to lead the City Attorney’s Office with an evidence-based approach.
Since the role of the CAO is limited to civil cases and prosecuting misdemeanors, Rouse will need to advocate for the policies he supports to a City Council that, as it stands currently, does not align with his beliefs. He thinks he has what it takes.
Rouse, 41, is a Philadelphia native. He moved to Seattle 20 years ago where he worked at REI and then at a sailing magazine. After attending law school at Seattle University, Rouse worked for “Big Law” firms, he held clerkships for federal judges, and, for the last four years, has been a public defender. It was that work in the Department of Public Defense that he says motivated him to run for city attorney.
“What I’ve really seen the last four years as a public defender is how ineffective the misdemeanor system is,” Rouse said. “We have a revolving door without meaningful results. We have a very large volume of cases that are filed without successfully interrupting the cycles of crime.”
Under Davison, who, in case you forgot switched her voter registration from Democrat to Republican in 2020, the CAO completely disbanded Seattle Municipal Court’s Community Court, a pioneering therapeutic court that offered low-level offenders services instead of prosecution. Davison also implemented the “High Utilizers Initiative,” which allowed the CAO to target people who had more than 12 misdemeanors. She also supported the City Council’s Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) and Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) zones that restricted the movements of those arrested for drug or prostitution charges. Additionally, she has made prosecuting more misdemeanors a priority.
Rouse believes that none of these policies have been effective or beneficial.
“I really see an emphasis on filing cases and an emphasis on performative public safety policies to score political points instead of actually trying to solve these issues with the resources that we have,” Rouse said.
He may have a point. The High Utilizers Initiative targeted those top offenders, half of whom were ordered by judges to undergo competency tests. Of those, 55% of offenders were found incompetent to stand trial. Rouse believes that continuing to prosecute these individuals does not solve the underlying problems. Additionally, the Seattle Times just reported the CAO is not even enforcing SODA.
“I see that policy as a waste of time,” Rouse said. “It’s a distraction.”
If elected, Rouse said he would not prosecute SOAP/SODA violations similar to how former city attorney Pete Holmes stopped prosecuting misdemeanor cannabis crimes when he took over the office.
These policies, as well as Davison’s focus on prosecuting more and more misdemeanors, mean fewer important crimes get prosecuted, according to Rouse. Driving under the influence and domestic violence cases—the serious things the CAO can prosecute and what Rouse wants to focus on—are falling by the wayside.
“A lot of those cases are getting dismissed because the line prosecutors, the deputies that actually deal with them, have so much else on their plate because of the number of cases that are filed,” Rouse said. “So those serious areas aren’t even getting the results that they should get.”
He wants to solve this by reimplementing community court and advocating for more evidence-based interventions such as the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.
Rouse wants to bring community court back to the Seattle Municipal Court and also beef up the services the court can provide to low-level offenders. By doing so, the CAO could reduce recidivism and the positive-feedback loop of the criminal justice system. It would also lessen the caseloads of CAO attorneys.
“Seattle Municipal Court should be a connection point for accessing treatment and other services,” Rouse said. “Community court can provide accountability for behaviors that are unacceptable, but also provide the types of resources that will work toward disrupting the behaviors that we’re concerned about.”
To get more “robust” treatment options and to boost funding for LEAD, Rouse would need to liaise with King County and state lawmakers. For many of his goals, he’d have to convince the Seattle City Council to sponsor the requisite legislation.
“The city council is full of members who all ran on a public safety platform,” Rouse said. “They all have that in common, and I would hope that they would be interested in evidence-based responses to these persistent issues that we see.”
One other way Rouse would like to reduce the cycle of crime would be to expand the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team, which connects people in certain crises with behavioral health professionals rather than police. Contract negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) limited the expansion of those teams to prevent the roles from being taken over by police.
“SPOG has interfered with efforts to reform the police by trying to hold on to those areas of work and not allow those reforms to be implemented,” Rouse said. “We don’t want police officers responding to overdoses. We want them investigating and solving serious crimes.”
However, as city attorney, Rouse would not have direct power to make that happen. Instead, he would need to influence the process through advocacy. If he were the city attorney negotiating SPOG’s contract, Rouse said he would advocate for a more reform-heavy contract by advising city leaders during negotiations.
Rouse also flexes his “progressive prosecutor” status in how he believes the city should deal with landlords price fixing rents in Seattle. He believes the civil division of the CAO should be “more proactive and less reactive” in that arena, though he did not state how this would be done in action other than that “affirmatively enforcing rental protections for city residents is key.”
While it’s outside the CAO’s purview, Rouse is also opposed to the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Martin v. Boise, which previously made it illegal for cities to arrest people for living outdoors. He bristled over how, before the Court’s ruling, Davison filed an amicus brief in support of repealing the law.
Davison’s actions on the federal level have been disappointing across the board, according to Rouse. As we enter a second Trump presidency, one where sanctuary cities offering safe harbor for migrants and refugees as well as those seeking reproductive health procedures such as abortion are once again under attack, Rouse thinks it is important to have a city attorney that will defend its citizens.
Davison has yet to sue or stand up to Trump in any capacity. Holmes sued Trump over sanctuary city protections. Rouse is not confident Davison, who switched parties after four years of living under a Trump presidency, will do anything other than capitulate.
He believes his experience in federal courts and working criminal cases will allow him to be effective in a way other CAO candidates, including Davison, will not be.
“It’s not the time to be silent or complicit,” Rouse said. “It’s really the time to dig in and defend our city.”
“While it’s outside the CAO’s purview, Rouse is also opposed to the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Martin v. Boise, which previously made it illegal for cities to arrest people for living outdoors.”
Sorry, that’s going to be a disqualifier for a lot of people. Allowing “campers” to tear up public property and turn spaces into organized crime areas is not something many of us wish to revisit. Beyond that there was a whole bunch of things he wants to do that is “not in the purvey of the city attorney’s office” either so maybe he should consider a run for legislature where he can actually affect the change he wants to see.
What does it even mean to switch your voter registration from “Democrat to Republican”? This is the first I’ve ever heard of the state tracking such a thing. Look, here’s the official state voter registration form: https://www.sos.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/VRF_English.pdf — where’s the box to tick “Republican”?
“Evidence Based Approach”
Ahh, the propaganda runs thick in those words.
Can we start a betting pool on who he’ll have to bang at the Stranger for endorsement?
I lost count of the number of his positions that fall outside his power to implement.
But maybe our Federal government’s rapid descent into autocracy will whet Seattle voters’ appetite for a return to the days of city prosecutors who refuse to prosecute.
@2 Yes, Nathalie is wrong. Davison is not a registered Republican—that is not a thing in Washington state. Rather, she ran as a Republican for Lieutenant Governor in 2020. A race she lost, because she sucks.
@2: Correct. There isn’t any partisan registration in this state. None. How can a Stranger reporter be so dumb as not to know this? Isn’t anybody editing this stuff?
That guy looks and sounds like a total goofball.
“Rouse also flexes his “progressive prosecutor” status” – How can he possibly “flex” his so-called “progressive prosecutor status” when he isn’t a prosecutor at all?
“While it’s outside the CAO’s purview, Rouse is also opposed to the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Martin v. Boise, which previously made it illegal for cities to arrest people for living outdoors.”
Victim identified as police say conflict over scooter led to deadly shooting at 12th and Spruce encampment
Posted on Monday, February 3, 2025 – 7:33 pm
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2025/02/victim-identified-as-police-say-conflict-over-scooter-led-to-deadly-shooting-at-12th-and-spruce-encampment/
“Can we start a betting pool on who he’ll have to bang at the Stranger for endorsement?”
LOL speaking of which, it’s hilarious how Hannah Krieg and Ashley Nerbovig are STILL listed on The Stranger’s Masthead:
https://www.thestranger.com/masthead
“Driving under the influence and domestic violence cases—the serious things the CAO can prosecute and what Rouse wants to focus on—are falling by the wayside.”
Given how many times Rouse and the Stranger used the phrase, “evidence-based approach,” I’m wondering where the evidence to support this statement is.
@8 well murder is already illegal and as the article states that suspect was arrested. Is your argument that everyone else at the encampment should also be arrested simply for living outside?
“Is your argument that everyone else at the encampment should also be arrested simply for living outside?”
YES.
@10 this is the CAO report for Q3 of 2024 (most recent available):
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/CityAttorney/Reports/CAO2024Q1Report.pdf
On page 9 you can see that charges per referral for DV and “criminal traffic” are and persistently have been lower under Davison than in 2019 under Holmes. That’s a pretty solid prima facie argument that those case types have been “falling by the wayside” while Davison plays politics with SODA zones etc.
@12 just on principle or because the murder happened? If the latter, if a murder happens in an apartment building, should everyone living in the building be arrested?
Meet the possible new boss. Same as the old boss, just wants to return us to a different way that didn’t work. Holler at me when someone has a solid idea that doesn’t include the faulty logic of allowing people to destroy their minds and bodies in public view failing to preserve public spaces for the general public. The vaguery presented by both the author and person running are banking on the belief that being disgusted with “what is” is good enough to return power back to other “limp *ick” policies.
@13: ‘On page 9 you can see that charges per referral for DV and “criminal traffic” are and persistently have been lower under Davison than in 2019 under Holmes.’
First, they’ve been persistently lower since end of 2019, which includes Holmes’ last two years in office. As the paragraph below explains, “The number of charges on each police referral averages about 5 charges for every 4 referrals (1.25) and does not vary much between quarters.”
Second, “The reduction in the decline rate for criminal traffic referrals is because a higher percentage of them now include DUIs.” (p. 10) The number of referrals for criminal traffic has been steady (~300 per quarter, top graph, p. 9) since Davison took office (Q1 2022), and fewer of these referrals have been declined. So, more prosecutions for criminal traffic offenses is bad?
Third, number of referrals and decline rates for domestic violence (DV) have remained the same since end of 2019, after which there has been a slight reduction in each (p. 11). Having both remain essentially unchanged does not support this headline post’s claim of inattention to DV.
In the dictionary “Progressive prosecutor” is listed as an example under the definition of the term “oxymoron.”
@14 JUST ON PRINCIPLE
@16 DV and DUI rates under Davison are basically the same as under Holmes, who was widely considered soft on crime, true. Non-traffic, non-DV decline rates (page 14) on the other hand have plummeted. So Davison is directing more of her deputies’ time and attention to thefts, etc, while maintaining Holmes-like time and attention to DV and DUIs. Sounds like Rouse is saying he intends to flip that if elected. Whether that’s preferable I suppose depends whether you agree with him that DV are DUI are the more important crimes to address. But there is at least some evidentiary support for his claim.
” . . . Davison’s focus on prosecuting more and more misdemeanors, mean fewer important crimes get prosecuted, according to Rouse.”
CAO made more misdemeanor referrals under Holmes than under Davison. See https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/CityAttorney/Reports/CAO2024Q1Report.pdf at p.3
CAO also filed more cases under Holmes than under Davison, even accounting for the backlog of cases that accumulated under Holmes. Id. at p.5.
What is Rouse talking about?
@19: “So Davison is directing more of her deputies’ time and attention to thefts, etc,”
The “etc,” (sic) there including assaults, yes. So, not only is the claim of her neglecting DUIs and DV completely without evidentiary foundation, but Davison is also prosecuting more assaults and thefts.
Why does Rouse believe this is such a bad thing?
@21 “ why does rouse think this is such a bad thing?”
because of his evidence based approach and other things which are not in the purview of the CAs office. lol
We need to look no further than San Francisco and Los Angeles to see what a failure these progressive prosecutors end up being with their soft on crime approach to the job. No thanks!
@10 The evidence is also evidence based….