Whatcom County Superior Court’s newest appointed judge has ties to the area
The Whatcom County Superior Court once again has four justices, as Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday appointed a new judge with ties to the region.
David Freeman was appointed to the court by Inslee on Jan. 28 to replace Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, who was sworn in to the Washington State Supreme Court earlier this month.
Freeman, 39, worked the past nine years for the Washington State Employee Security Department as a review judge in the Commissioner’s Review Office, according to a release on the appointment from Inslee’s office.
“For several years, David has gained judicial experience, not just as a review judge with ESD, but also as a pro tem judge and commissioner,” Inslee said in the release. “We have heard from many people who have appeared before him, and each of those people spoke highly of his talent and demeanor from the bench.”
Before working for the employment security department, Freeman worked more than five years as a deputy prosecuting attorney and as a special deputy prosecuting attorney for the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He handled mostly juvenile cases, according to The Bellingham Herald archives, and also served as a pro tem judge for Everson, Lynden and Ferndale.
Freeman, a native of Olympia, also obtained his bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University in 2002 with a degree in political science, before receiving his law degree from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore.
In addition to his work at the employment security department and in Whatcom County, Freeman gained experience serving as a judicial officer in a number of courts throughout Western Washington, the release said.
He will be one of four Whatcom County Superior Court judges who are elected to four-year terms, and three court commissioners. The judges hear felony, civil, divorce/child custody and support, guardianship, adoption, juvenile and mental illness cases and paternity actions.
Freeman becomes the third judge appointed to Whatcom’s Superior Court in the past 18 months, joining Rob Olson who was appointed Aug. 8, 2018, and Lee Grochmal who was appointed Feb. 14, 2019.
Called to the law
Freeman told The Herald in 2015 that he decided to go into the law, in part, because he knew it was work he could do if he were to go blind.
Freeman was diagnosed when he was 14 with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease in which the retina slowly degenerates, leading to problems with night vision, tunnel vision and, eventually, blindness. His mother has the disease too.
He said in 2015 that he has lost much of his peripheral vision and might be starting to lose some of his straight-ahead vision.
When Freeman began thinking about careers, he said he talked to blind attorneys. People who are blind can practice law with, for example, the use of Braille, computerized readers, and assistants who read legal briefs aloud.
“It’s something that I could do no matter how it progressed,” Freeman said.
Retinitis pigmentosa is one of several blinding diseases of the retina that affect more than 10 million Americans, according to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, a national nonprofit raising money for prevention, treatments and cures.
His tunnel vision in 2015 made reading and writing slower, Freeman said, but not impossible. He studied Braille in high school and has began studying it again, although he didn’t need it in 2015. With encroaching tunnel vision, he used a cane on occasion, although he was hesitant.
“You feel like you’re showing a weakness,” he said.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
