A request from the Washington Attorney General’s Office for a harsher prison sentence for former Asotin Superior Court Judge Scott Gallina has been denied.
Scott Gallina
According to the latest court documents, Judge Michael Price reviewed the attorney general’s motion and a response from the defense team before rendering his decision.
In an order recently filed in Asotin County Superior Court, Gallina’s 15-month prison sentence will stand.
The 58-year-old Gallina served as the Superior Court judge in Asotin, Columbia and Garfield counties for five years before being arrested for sexual misconduct in 2019. He pleaded guilty to a felony and a gross misdemeanor, both assaults with sexual motivation, for crimes that occurred against two female co-workers at the Asotin County Courthouse.
The plea agreement reached by the defense and state, and approved of both victims, called for a sentencing range of 13 to 27 months behind bars, with the state advocating for the high end.
The attorney general’s office argued the court made a legal error in July, when Gallina appeared before Price in Asotin County for sentencing. At the time, Price said he was confident a 27-month was warranted in the case, but concluded the sentences for each conviction should run concurrently, rather than consecutively.
Gallina is now in custody of a state corrections facility and must register as a sex offender and complete three years of community custody when he’s released from prison. (Lewiston Tribune)
