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Federal Way court asks committee to advance grant requests to process ~800 vacated drug convictions
Summary
Municipal court staff and Judge Danielle Havens asked the committee to approve applying for state grants to process roughly 800 convictions affected by State v. Blake, seeking starter funds and additional 2027 support to vacate convictions and reimburse people who paid fines.
Court administrator Mariam Olsson and Presiding Judge Danielle Havens told the committee the city must accelerate processing vacated drug-possession convictions tied to State v. Blake to take advantage of dwindling state funds and to avoid potential local liability.
"Federal Way has around 800 cases that need to be vacated and any money paid refunded," Olsson said, describing a two-pot state funding structure: one fund for courts' extraordinary processing costs and another for refunds to people who paid fines. She said some prior Federal Way grants for processing and refunds expired because the city did not use them.
Judge Havens said courts across the state are rushing to process vacated cases and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is encouraging local courts to pursue available funds. Olsson said AOC was offering an initial $5,000 to start processing through June and additional funding was expected for the 2027 fiscal year.
"We are at risk as a city of being left on the hook when the state dollars are gone," Olsson said. She told the committee staff plans to hire an experienced retired court specialist for temporary help and estimated completing the backlog by the end of 2026 if daily processing capacity is increased.
Committee members pressed for a timeline and asked why earlier leadership had not processed the cases. Judge Havens said prior decisions and staffing constraints contributed to the delay; she and staff said staff shortages were a key barrier.
The committee moved the proposed interagency agreement with the Administrative Office of the Courts forward to the May 5 consent agenda for approval so the court can apply for and accept funds.
Next steps: The agreement was forwarded to the May 5 consent agenda; staff plans to begin initial processing with the starter funds and seek further grant dollars and temporary assistance to process the cases before a 2027 case management transition.
