Attorney Katie Kauffman won a trial in Clark County Superior Court last week for a client whose charges were upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony after he refused a deputy prosecutor’s plea offer.

The client, 43, was arrested in January 2020 by Clark County sheriff’s deputies for assault in the fourth degree with sexual motivation, a misdemeanor. His arrest was based on an allegation from a family friend who had been spending the night.

She told deputies that she woke up in the middle of the night when the client was touching her butt. The alleged victim, 22, said the client touched her on the outside of her pajama pants.

Our client denied any inappropriate touching and said he simply put a blanket over the woman.

When he refused to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge in District Court, a deputy prosecutor attorney filed a new charge of indecent liberties in Superior Court.

Attorney Katie Kauffman got an attempted murder charge dismissed for a client whom doctors for the state and defense agreed was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

A Clark County deputy prosecutor dismissed the criminal charge on June 11. The client remains at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Wash., where he may be stay pending an evaluation to determine whether he should be civilly committed. 

Kauffman’s client, 42, was arrested in August 2020 by Vancouver police officers after allegedly stabbing a man outside Living Hope Church. The stabbing victim worked for the church, helping manage what was described in police reports as an “improvised tent village.” Kauffman’s client had been among those sleeping in tents outside the church.

He was charged with attempted murder in the first degree, a class A felony punishable by a minimum of 15 years in prison.

Attorney Leila Arefi-Pour won a trial in Clark County District Court this week for a client charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment.

Jurors deliberated approximately 45 minutes on June 15 before returning the not-guilty verdicts.

Harassment and fourth-degree assault, both gross misdemeanors, carry a maximum sentence of one year in jail each.

Arefi-Pour’s client was arrested May 2 after two of his roommates alleged he had pushed one of them and threatened another during an argument.

Both alleged victims testified at trial that the argument broke out over where to smoke in the shared apartment and that during the argument, Arefi-Pour’s client hit one of them and threatened bodily harm to the other. However, over the course of questioning by prosecution and defense, numerous inconsistencies in both alleged victims came out which Arefi-Pour was able to effectively highlight.

Attorney Gregger Highberg won a not-guilty verdict in Clark County District Court for a client accused of assaulting a roommate.

The May 24 verdict meant his 25-year-old client not only avoided a conviction for misdemeanor assault, but was able to accept a job offer that had been pending the outcome of her case.

At the time of her arrest, the client had been renting one floor of a three-floor townhome from the alleged victim and his wife. The alleged victim’s wife called 911 at approximately 11 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2020, and said her husband had been in an argument with their roommate and he was bleeding from his face.

Deputies from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Highberg’s client, the alleged victim and his wife. They learned the alleged victim and his wife had been drinking all day, and our client had joined them in the evening. At some point Highberg’s client and the alleged victim started arguing; the client told deputies the alleged victim called her a racial slur and demanded she leave.

She said the alleged victim swung at her twice, missing both times, and in self-defense she picked up a bottle of Jameson Whiskey and threw it in his direction. She said she did not mean to hit him, but the bottle connected with his head, causing a laceration described as between one and two inches long. It ended up requiring five staples and he was diagnosed with a concussion.

Had Highberg’s client been convicted, the alleged victim could have asked to be reimbursed the cost of his medical bills.