PORT ANGELES — With a 10-day trial looming, attorneys for Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols and the woman who has accused him of sexual harassment will attempt to resolve their differences.
The lawyers will meet at 9 a.m. Friday for a settlement conference to resolve the June 1, 2017, federal district court civil complaint filed by Nichols’ former office manager and admitted romantic interest, Tina Hendrickson.
The meeting was ordered Nov. 21 by U.S. Magistrate Judge David W. Christel.
“It’s fairly common in civil cases,” Bill McCool, the Tacoma-based court’s spokesman, said Wednesday.
“There are many tools available to a judge to settle cases.
“One is to schedule a settlement conference with the parties.
“It’s a case-by-case determination.”
Trial briefs, proposed questions for a prospective jury and jury instructions were submitted to federal District Court Judge Benjamin Settle by Nov. 20.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for Monday.
A 10-day jury trial is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Dec. 11.
Hendrickson, no longer employed by Clallam County, was a family friend of Nichols when he hired her following his first successful run for office in November 2014.
Nichols won re-election over challenger Selinda Barkhuis, former treasurer, in returns certified Tuesday.
Hendrickson said she rejected Nichols’ unwanted romantic overtures, claimed he forced her to hug him and touched her inappropriately on her buttocks “a couple of dozen times, on a pretense of removing loose strings,” according to her interview with county Human Resources Manager Rich Sill.
Nichols said he heeded her rejection of romantic involvement and denied her other allegations.
Gig Harbor attorney Terry Venneberg, representing Hendrickson, and Seattle attorney Suzanne Kelly Michael, representing Nichols, have not returned calls for comment this week.
In his order, Christel said the lawyers “shall come to the conference prepared with a reasonable plan to resolve and fully settle and are expected to participate in the settlement conference with a mindset, attitude and creative approach of being problem solvers.”
Christel ordered Venneberg and Michael to confer with him by phone about the case, also inviting Hendrickson and Nichols to do so, before Friday.
Christel ordered the lawyers to present “a candid summation” of both sides of the case, a history of past negotiations and “specific reasons why the case should settle.”
Persons must be present at the settlement conference “with full settlement authority,” Christel said.
In May, Settle postponed a trial set for Oct. 16 after Nichols said he would be too busy campaigning for re-election and Michael said she had a trial-scheduling conflict.
Hendrickson is seeking unspecified punitive damages, court costs and attorney’s fees.
The case has cost $171,183 for Nichols’ defense, according to county records.
The Washington Counties Risk Pool is covering Nichols’ legal expenses under a county policy that has a deductible of $100,000 per case, Sill said in an earlier interview.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
