Slack To Join Culwell as Deputy Prosecutor

DAYTON – Dayton criminal defense attorney C. Dale Slack will become Columbia County's new deputy prosecutor beginning April 1, according to Rea Culwell, the county's prosecuting attorney.

"I'm excited," Slack said. "I think I can do a lot of good there and continue to serve the county, just in a different role."

Current deputy prosecutor, Abbie Broughton-Marsh, is leaving the prosecuting attorney's office at the end of March to take a job in Phoenix, Ariz., as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona.

Broughton-Marsh took the deputy prosecutor position in September after working as an associate attorney with Nealey-Marinella since 2012.

Although the federal prosecutor position in Arizona is exciting, Broughton-Marsh said she will be sad to leave the community where she has so much family and so many friends. She spent her childhood in Columbia County, living here until she was 12. Her husband, Greg Marsh, has family in Arizona and is anxious to live closer to them, she said.

Slack, who opened his office in downtown Dayton in January 2011, has been practicing law in Columbia County since 2008. He was working with Carman Law Office, in Walla Walla, when that agency was awarded a contract to provide indigent defense here.

Now Slack and his associate, Rachel Cortez, provide half of the county's public defense; local attorney Julie Karl, formerly with the county prosecutor's office, provides the other half.

Slack said he will take a month off, beginning March 1, between working as a county defense attorney and starting at the prosecutor's office.

"I have about six open criminal cases right now," he said. "Some are settling, and some will have to go to another attorney." The court and each office involved will have to be very mindful of any conflicts of interest, he said.

Cortez, who has been with Slack's office a little over a year, will continue practicing law in their current offices, Slack said. She has been handling all of their district court cases for the county, he said. The Columbia County Commissioners will discuss how to handle the indigent defense contract later this week at their regular board meeting. Cortez is unable, currently, to handle Class A felony cases, Slack said, "but that's about the only thing she can't do."

Slack was born in Pullman and attended law school at the University of Idaho College of Law. After graduating and passing the bar exam, he worked for four years as an associate attorney at Carman Law Office. He is licensed to practice in all Washington State Courts and the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Washington. He has served as secretary/treasurer and vice-president of the Hells Canyon Bar Association and is a member of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Washington Defender Association, and the Washington State Association for Justice (formerly Washington State Trial Lawyers' Association).