In Re Tortorelli

66 P.3d 606
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 2003
Docket71251-4
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 66 P.3d 606 (In Re Tortorelli) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Tortorelli, 66 P.3d 606 (Wash. 2003).

Opinion

66 P.3d 606 (2003)
149 Wash.2d 82

In the Matter of the Personal Restraint of John TORTORELLI, Petitioner.

No. 71251-4.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Argued May 9, 2002.
Decided April 10, 2003.

*607 James Lobsenz, Seattle, for Petitioner.

Norm Maleng, King County Prosecutor, Lynn Prunhuber, Deputy, Seattle, for Respondent.

Christine Gregoire, Attorney General, Alexandra Smith, Asst., Olympia, Amicus Curiae on Behalf of Department of Natural Resources.

CHAMBERS, J.

John Tortorelli was found guilty of theft, trafficking in stolen property, and criminal profiteering, arising from his business of salvaging stray logs and submerged trees from Lake Washington. Tortorelli made several challenges to his convictions in his direct appeal, which were rejected by the Court of Appeals. In this personal restraint petition he raises numerous additional challenges, including insufficiency of the evidence that the logs and trees were "the property of another," as required by the statute under which he was charged, RCW 9A.56.020(1)(a), and ineffective assistance of counsel. We conclude as a matter of law that the State owned the salvaged logs and trees, and we reject his other claims.

FACTS

Until 1994, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued log patrol licenses to *608 authorize salvage of stray logs in return for a percentage of the profit. See former RCW 76.40.030, .050 (1984), repealed by Laws of 1994, ch. 163, § 6. This former log patrol statute provided that if the salvaged logs were branded, they were to be returned to the owner and the salvage operator would be allowed to keep 75 percent of their value. Former RCW 76.40.050(2). If, however, the logs were unbranded, the State asserted ownership, and in practice allowed the operator to keep 90 percent of the value. The licensee was required to inform DNR of the general location of the salvage operation and the specific location of the log storage in order to facilitate inspection.

The stray logs authorized for salvage by a log patrol licensee are not the same as the ancient forest remnants also found in Lake Washington. The ancient forest remnants were not lost from transportation or storage, but resulted from several landslides that occurred around the shores of Lake Washington about 1,100 years ago. These ancient trees have been preserved by the low oxygen content in the deep water. Because of their historic and scientific value, the trees by definition were not salvageable under the former log patrol statute.

In February 1991, Tortorelli, the owner of Western Wood Lumber, purchased salvage equipment including a barge and tug called the Shawnee from Carl Burgin and Roy Jamieson of Clearwater Marine Works, Inc. (Clearwater). Clearwater retained a barge and tug named the Crawfish. The agreement between Tortorelli and Clearwater was memorialized in two different documents. A security agreement provided in part that Western Wood Lumber could use permits issued to Clearwater if permitted by law. A cooperation agreement provided, among other things, that the two businesses would not directly compete with each other in the log salvage business.

On April 15, 1991, shortly after Tortorelli had his equipment towed from Everett to commence a salvage operation in Lake Washington, the State mailed him a letter advising that the State owned all the unbranded logs in the lake, describing the regulations applicable to log salvage, and summarizing chapter 79.90 RCW, the aquatic lands act. The letter included a copy of the log patrol statute, former chapter 76.40 RCW, and the log patrol operating guidelines. In his application, Tortorelli indicated that his operation and log storage would be in Everett. The State therefore advised him of log patrol restrictions in and around the Everett harbor.

In August 1991, in apparent response to the April 15 letter, Tortorelli applied for a log patrol permit. However, he did so under the name Clearwater Marine Works and not Western Wood Lumber. He was neither an officer nor an employee of Clearwater. By applying in the name of Clearwater, he avoided the necessity of posting the $10,000 bond required of new applicants, and had to pay only the $500 required to license an additional boat. See former RCW 76.40.030(1).

Believing that both the Crawfish and the Shawnee were still owned by Clearwater, DNR issued a new license to attach to the Shawnee. When issuing the log patrol permit, the State sent Tortorelli another letter, reiterating which logs the State owned and enclosing revised operating guidelines.

While awaiting his new license, Tortorelli moved his operation to the ancient submerged forest on the southwest side of Mercer Island. Charts issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that the forest extends to within 30 feet of the surface of the water. Some trees are anchored in the bed of the lake, but others were uprooted in about 1919 when the Corps of Engineers cleared the channel during construction of the Lake Washington ship canal. The timber the crew found at this site consisted of full length fir trees, about a hundred feet tall, with root balls attached. The crew raised the trees, then cut off the root balls and tops and returned them to the water, retaining only the tree trunks.

In August 1991, while Tortorelli was working in the submerged forest area, he began to cooperate with Dr. Gordon Jacoby and Dr. Patrick Williams, scientists doing a tree ring analysis to date the sunken trees. Tortorelli provided slices from 18 different trees, each *609 of which was found to be at least a thousand years old. In return, the scientists helped locate fallen trees by attaching buoys. Dr. Williams testified at trial that Tortorelli's crane would not be strong enough to lift a tree that was still rooted in the bed of the lake. However, the trees raised by Tortorelli, while not rooted, had been partially buried in the mud, as evidenced by preservation of the outer ring. The trees were still encased in mud when raised from the bed of the lake, and had to be dunked back in the water several times to remove mud.

In March 1992, after spending a few months in Everett, Tortorelli returned to Lake Washington, where he went to work in the Gene L. Coulon Memorial Beach Park area. Toward the end of the month, a metro sewer line was ruptured under the channel between Mercer Island and the eastern shore of Lake Washington, triggering extra scrutiny from DNR. On becoming aware of Tortorelli's operations in the area, DNR informed him that he needed to obtain a hydraulics project approval. Tortorelli accordingly applied, but carried on his operations without waiting to receive the permit.

On May 7, 1992, the Department of Fisheries issued a hydraulics project approval on condition that Tortorelli conduct a study to determine whether his operation was damaging crayfish, an important food source for bass and trout and a crucial part of the lake's ecology. Tortorelli was also required to stay south of the Interstate 90 Bridge.

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Bluebook (online)
66 P.3d 606, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-tortorelli-wash-2003.