Idaho GOP leader Hall fired as deputy prosecutor, quits national committee after stalking conviction

The Party Of Family Values In Idaho wants us to think of someone other than Larry Craig....

Idaho GOP leader Hall fired as deputy prosecutor, quits national committee after stalking conviction
By Dan Popkey - dpopkey@idahostatesman.com
Copyright by The Idaho Stateman
Published: 11/09/09
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/966677.html


Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and has resigned from the Republican National Committee.

Hall, a former member of the state Board of Education, pleaded guilty Friday to stalking a former girlfriend and is serving a 15-day jail sentence. He also was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. A six-month jail sentence was suspended.

Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman's house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.

Also, between March and August, Hall repeatedly followed the woman to restaurants, the movies and her home, and he ignored her repeated requests that he leave her alone, according to police and court records.

The victim testified Friday that Hall once followed her to a Walmart and took her car keys and would not return them until she agreed to "hear him out" concerning her marriage, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported.

"I was so tired of being victimized," the woman said. "It is unimaginable that a 56-year-old would be so deviant."

Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr. told the Idaho Statesman on Monday that he met with Hall for about an hour at the jail Monday and fired him as the county's chief civil attorney.

That's a job Hall had held since 1983. Hel was paid $59,800 a year to advise the county commissioners and handle other noncriminal matters.

"The bottom line is he just couldn't work for the county, representing the county's interests, when he was being supervised on a criminal conviction," Watkins told the Idaho Statesman. "He was a member of the prosecutor's office, and every day we make decisions that relate to this very thing. I just didn't think it was appropriate to preserve that relationship."

Watkins, also a Republican, put Hall on paid administrative leave in September after a judge issued an order prohibiting Hall from contacting the former girlfriend, who is 37 and recently married another man.

But Hall, 56, will keep his $31,000-a-year job as the civil attorney in nearby Fremont County, according to Prosecutor Joette Lookabaugh, a Republican who hired Hall in January.

Lookabaugh said she told Hall he would keep his job "unless or until his ability to do an outstanding job for Fremont County citizens is compromised."

In a news release, Lookabaugh suggested Hall was singled out because of his notoriety.

"I understand that political figures are held to a higher standard," she said. "What is disturbing is the fact that often people who have devoted their lives to public service are not given the same benefits, or are treated more harshly, than the public at large. There seems to be a certain amount of political glee in striking down the well-known for any real or perceived foible."

Lookabaugh said Hall will continue to accumulate retirement benefits under the Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho, or PERSI.

Hall was classified as a full-time Bonneville County employee and accumulated 26 years of service. Were he to retire now, he would receive about $18,500 a year from his state pension. Were he to retire now and wait to collect until he's 65, Hall would get about $30,500.

Hall's tenure with the Republican National Committee also dates to the 1980s. Until his resignation, he was the second-most-senior member of the RNC.

Idaho GOP Chairman Norm Semanko issued the following statement Monday:

"Over the weekend, Blake Hall informed me that effective immediately he has resigned his position as National Committeeman of the Idaho Republican Party. Blake's successor will be chosen by the Idaho Republican State Central Committee. I am grateful for Blake's many years of service to the Republican Party and appreciate that he put the party first by submitting his resignation."

Hall has been a member of the 148-member governing body since 1990. He also served on the RNC when he was Idaho Republican Chairman from 1985 to 1989. Earlier this year, he resigned as the national party's general counsel. He resigned from the Board of Education earlier this year after nine years of service.

Hall began serving his sentence Saturday, two days before he was required to report to the Bonneville County Jail by Sixth District Judge Don Harding.

David Leroy, a former Idaho attorney general, is Hall's attorney.

"In my opinion, he accepted this severe penalty with extreme grace," Leroy said Monday. "He was calm and strong."

Harding denied Hall's request for work release, which would have allowed him to spend nights in jail but be freed during the day to continue working.

In addition to his work for the two counties, Hall has a private practice. He is administrator of the state Catastrophic Health Care Program, or CAT fund, and an attorney for the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, or ICRMP. Hall’s work for government agencies brings his law firm more than $600,000 annually.

Bonneville County Commissioner Roger Christensen, chairman of the CAT fund board, said the board was already preparing to request new bids for the administrative contract because of a change in the law this year. Hall has been administrator since 1985, but his contract expires Dec. 31. If Hall were to continue on the job, he would have to win the competitive bid expected sometime in the first half of 2010, Christensen said.

Rick Ferguson, executive director of ICRMP, said in a written statement that the insurer of public entities had “no immediate plans” to reassign cases being handled by Hall’s firm, Nelson, Hall, Parry, Tucker, but would “continue to monitor Mr. Hall’s situation.”

“ICRMP will use the same considerations in making future legal assignments it has always used; those are based on the ability of a law firm to effectively handle a particular legal matter. Effectiveness includes a good working relationship with our members.”

Leroy said he had hoped the judge would allow Hall to continue to report to work, while spending 15 nights in jail.

"Blake Hall has absolutely no prior criminal record," Leroy said. "Yet he was denied a privilege commonly given in that jurisdiction of work release to attend to business during a relatively brief period of incarceration."

Special Prosecutor Jay Rosenthal said Monday that the sentence was appropriate.

"I believe the judge recognized how invasive this defendant was in the life of this young lady," Rosenthal said. "He held her effectively prisoner in her own community, and he needed to know what it was like to not be free."

Harding has been a judge for 18 years in 6th Judicial District and was assigned the case in the 7th District because of Hall's many connections in the region's legal community. Said Harding: "I've never seen (a stalking case) this extensive where it lasted so long and (was) such an invasion of privacy."

Harding denied Hall's request for a withheld judgment, which could have resulted in the expunging of the conviction had Hall successfully completed one year of supervised probation and a treatment program. Leroy said Hall plans to ask Harding to reconsider his decision on the withheld judgment.