By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Clallam County Prosecutor Mark Nichols announced his candidacy for a third term in office Wednesday.
In 2018, Nichols focused his campaign on a commitment to make public safety his top priority, to continue his efforts to shepherd the creation of a mental health court, and to use his position as coroner to disseminate information useful to the advancement of public health.

“On the public safety front, we have had some tragic and horrendous murders occur in Clallam County over the last three years. I am proud of my team and the office for successfully prosecuting and holding accountable those responsible, all of whom are in prison. Now, simultaneously, we’ve not lost focus on the variety of sex offenders, property and drug crimes. We continue to prosecute those offenses here in Clallam County.”

Nichols says progress is being made to establish a mental health court.

“We are experiencing progress in relation to this effort, which has now been funded, and I expect that the program will be going live in District Court 1 in the several months to come. And that will be, I think, a real benefit for Clallam County and for those who are afflicted with mental health disorders who are coming to the attention of the criminal justice system.”

Nichols also says he has made significant improvements in using his role as the coroner to help benefit public health.

“Through our office’s website, we’ve been publishing quarterly data regarding mortality trends in Clallam County. Some of the larger categories that we track include murder rates on an annual basis, but we also track suicide rates and fatal drug overdose. And collectively those three categories of mortality information are invaluable in providing a snapshot regarding the health of our community.”

When asked how his office faired during the pandemic, Nichols said they have a backlog of cases to work because of the pandemic’s effect on the courts, but he kept the high priority cases in the forefront.
But Nichols says not every aspect of the pandemic has proven to be negative.

“There’s actually been some silver linings in my personal opinion coming out of the pandemic, and one is that there may be an ability to have folks work from home on a part-time basis moving forward that may, in fact, become the the way of the world based upon how the courts are operating, and some of the challenges that we have in our small community with regards to lack of childcare, and those sorts of things.”

No opponent had filed to run against Nichols as of this writing, but it’s early, with May 20 being the deadline to do so.