Maleng leaves a living legacy

In 28 years as King County prosecutor, Norm Maleng launched special units that got tough on sex offenders and spouse beaters, but he showed compassion to drug addicts and the poor.

He helped rewrite the way judges across the state hand down sentences in criminal cases.

But Maleng's most lasting legacy may be the prominent lawyers, judges and politicians who got their start in his office and were inspired by his reputation for fairness and integrity.

Maleng was a dedicated Republican who ran for state office three times. But he kept partisan politics out of the prosecutor's office.

"He established an office of professionals," said King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu, a former deputy chief of staff to Maleng.

Many of those former prosecutors visited or called Maleng's office Friday, grieving after his unexpected death Thursday night.

An autopsy Friday showed he died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, commonly referred to as hardening of the arteries, the King County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Maleng had been in power for so long it was easy to forget the office didn't always have an unblemished reputation.

Longtime Prosecutor Charles O. Carroll lost his re-election bid in 1970 to reformer Chris Bayley after he was dogged by allegations of corruption and political favoritism. Maleng worked as a top deputy to Bayley before being elected to succeed him in 1978.

"Chris Bayley started to turn that around, and Norm was the one who made sure it never wavered," said U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik, who worked for both men. "We have something very precious here that should be entrusted to whoever his successor is."

Former Gov. Gary Locke, a Democrat, worked for Maleng in the late 1970s and early '80s and remembers it as "one of the best jobs that any young lawyer could ever hope for."

"He could point to an army of thousands of lawyers who were proud to call him boss, mentor and friend," said Locke. "We're just utterly devastated."

A moderate Republican in a county that turned increasingly Democratic, Maleng had no problem getting elected to eight terms, including last November. Friends said as far as they knew, he planned to run for a ninth.

He twice ran for governor, losing in the 1988 and 1996 primaries to more conservative opponents. In 1992, he lost a bid for state attorney general to Christine Gregoire.

Over the nearly three decades he ran the prosecutor's office, Maleng became one of the state's most respected voices in criminal justice.

One of his most sweeping accomplishments came early in his tenure, when he helped persuade the Legislature to revamp the state's patchwork system of sentencing criminals.

The result was the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981, which took away some discretion from judges and imposed guidelines to ensure that criminals committing the same crime received similar sentences. Similarly, Maleng imposed rules to standardize how and when his own prosecutors would offer plea bargains to criminal defendants.

Maleng engineered a tougher approach to sex offenders after a string of highly publicized crimes by repeat offenders in the 1980s. That led to the state's system of registering offenders and confining some of them even after they left prison.

His office also created the Special Assault Unit, one of the country's first specialized efforts to prosecute sexual assaults and domestic violence.

The unit assigned a single prosecutor to such cases from beginning to end, reducing the trauma for victims and making convictions more likely, said Rebecca Roe, a former deputy prosecutor.

"That was a completely different and novel concept from the way we usually handled cases," Roe said.

Many of his efforts were aimed at cracking down on crimes that generated public complaints. For example, he established a special car-theft unit two years ago to target the most prolific auto thieves.

But Maleng didn't always stick to the prosecutor-as-unyielding-tough-guy script.

This year, his support was crucial to passing a law protecting journalists from the threat of jail for refusing to reveal confidential sources.

He pushed for alternatives to jail for some nonviolent criminals.

Maleng helped establish King County's specialized drug court in 1993, also of one of the first of its type in the country. The court allows people charged with drug possession to avoid criminal prosecution if they follow a strict plan including drug testing and counseling. Studies have shown that approach can reduce recidivism and cut jail costs.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, who worked to create the drug court with Maleng, his former boss, said it never would have happened without the prosecutor's unwavering support.

Martinez said Maleng often told his prosecutors, "Our job is to do justice, and that doesn't necessarily mean a conviction."

Maleng also worked with local public defenders to help people whose driver's licenses had been suspended because of unpaid tickets. Instead of prosecuting them, the county now helps drivers — many of them poor and African-American — settle their debts and get back their licenses.

That "genuine compassion for the poor" earned Maleng respect among the local defense community, said Bob Boruchowitz, who was director of The Defender Association for 28 years and is now a visiting professor at Seattle University Law School.

"He was a decent man who set a high standard," said Boruchowitz. "King County was lucky to have him in his job for so many years."

Staff reporter Steve Miletich and news researcher David Turim contributed to this report.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com