Everett
Settlement urged over monument

By Rachel Tuinstra
Times Snohomish County bureau

	THE SEATTLE TIMES, 2001 A boy runs down the sidewalk in front of the Ten Commandments monument.
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EVERETT — A national organization that is suing the city over a granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments is urging the city to settle the case out of court to avoid mounting legal costs.

The city has spent $30,000 in staff and legal costs since the lawsuit was filed in late July, said Mark Soine, the city attorney. The two sides are exchanging documents as part of the discovery process, he said. The case isn't expected to be heard until next October.

"Yes, we've spent $30,000, and we will spend more," Soine said.

"What we are really defending is the right to display a historic monument. We have any number of pieces of art, historic police equipment, uniforms, call boxes, display cases. We have any number of plaques in council chambers and pictures of warships. Where do you draw the line? They are all historic items."

Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the city's taxpayers may ultimately bear the burden of the lawsuit. Americans United is the group representing Jesse Card, a 20-year-old Everett resident who filed the suit.

The lawsuit, in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks to have the monument deemed unconstitutional and seeks a permanent injunction forbidding its relocation to another public property. Card is seeking $1 in damages.

"We believe we have an excellent case, and we will be asking for attorney fees when we win the case," Conn said. "It's certainly better for taxpayers if the city settles out of court."

Neither Soine nor Conn could estimate their final legal bills.

Conn said the group would likely settle the lawsuit if the city agreed to move the 6-foot-tall monument off city property in front of the police station.

"We're not against the Ten Commandments," Conn said. "I'm sure there are lots of houses of worship nearby who would be happy to take it and prominently display it."

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said yesterday that the city will continue to monitor related court decisions throughout the country.

"At the circuit-court level, there has been conflicting decisions," Stephanson said. "The U.S. Supreme Court will eventually have to make a decision about this. This is a law-of-the-land kind of decision."

The city's defense of the monument is not his alone to make, the mayor said. The City Council is also involved and has supported the legal battle, he said.

"The citizen response we've had here is overwhelming support for defending the monument," Stephanson said.

Soine said the monument was not installed for religious purposes but was part of a national movement in the 1950s to promote a code of conduct for troubled youths. The monument was a gift from the branch of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1959.

Throughout the 1950s, the order had acted upon an idea hatched by famed movie producer Cecil B. De Mille and a juvenile-court judge in Minnesota and donated Ten Commandments displays to cities across the country. De Mille produced the 1956 film "The Ten Commandments."

"You have to put it into the context of when it was put up," Soine said. "It's been there a long time."

The city has hired constitutional lawyers Stephen Smith and Fredric Tausend from Preston Gates & Ellis in Seattle to handle the case, Soine said.

Rachel Tuinstra: 425-260-2673 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com

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