Attorneys for Vancouver defense attorney Josephine Townsend are asking a judge to dismiss the forgery case against her.
Townsend, 64, appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court on a summons for two counts of forgery. A judge from Lewis County, Joely Yeager, is handling the case after the local Superior Court bench recused itself.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Townsend’s attorneys, from Camas-based Vern McCray Law Firm, asked Yeager to postpone Townsend’s first appearance until after the judge has heard the lengthy motion to dismiss.
McCray called the case a “unprecedented situation,” and he said he has “grave concerns” about the probable cause affidavit the charges are based on. He said if the judge heard the defense’s evidence of omissions and misrepresentations in the affidavit, no judicial officer would have found probable cause.
Yeager denied the defense’s request to postpone the hearing. The judge said she was not going to treat the case against Townsend any differently than any other criminal case.
The judge agreed to allow Townsend to remain out of custody without posting bail, but she ordered Townsend to complete an administrative booking at the Clark County Jail before her next hearing.
Yeager said the attorneys must coordinate with the courts in Clark and Lewis counties to schedule the next hearing, at which time she will hear Townsend’s motion to dismiss and, if she denies it, complete her arraignment.
In Townsend’s motion, her attorneys write that they’re not disputing a protection order shown to Clark County sheriff’s deputies against one of Townsend’s clients was forged. But, they denied Townsend forged it. Instead, they say Townsend’s client, Travon Santiago, and his girlfriend, Nicole Eagle, were responsible for the fake document.
Santiago was arrested in December 2023 on suspicion of first-degree assault, and a judge ordered a criminal protection order, as well as GPS monitoring, prohibiting Santiago from coming within 1,000 feet of the victim. The victim’s partner also filed for a civil protection order against Santiago. The civil protection order was issued in January 2024 and restricted Santiago from coming within 5,000 feet of her, according to court records.
In April, a judge changed the distance restriction in the criminal protection order to 500 feet. Deputies learned Santiago’s apartment was roughly 1,000 feet from the victim’s home. But, they said the civil protection order prohibiting Santiago from coming within 5,000 feet of the victim’s partner was never changed, court records state.
On July 17, deputies responded to a 911 call from the victim’s partner reporting a violation of the civil protection order. When deputies accessed the online GPS monitoring system, they saw Santiago was at his apartment, which was in violation of the 5,000-foot restriction, court records state.
When deputies went to the apartment, Santiago’s girlfriend presented them with a document that claimed the protection order had been modified. But deputies said the case number on the document was for the criminal case, not the civil order they were there to enforce, according to court records. Deputies said Santiago’s girlfriend was on the phone with someone they learned to be Townsend, Santiago’s attorney.
The deputies left the apartment.
Santiago’s girlfriend later called the sheriff’s office. She told a sergeant that Townsend had sent her an order showing the protection order had been modified. She forwarded the order to the sergeant, which deputies noted was dated April 25 and now had the correct case number for the civil protection order. They said it also had Clark County Superior Court Judge Suzan Clark’s electronic signature — with the same time stamp, down to the second, as the modified criminal protection order — along with the clerk’s office’s e-filing stamp, according to court records.
Townsend’s attorneys allege the sheriff’s detective who investigated the case mismanaged it in hopes of gaining notoriety for investigating a practicing defense attorney. They wrote investigators conducted a one-sided investigation and ignored Santiago and Eagle’s motivation to lie to avoid arrest for allegedly violating the protection order and obstructing officers.
The attorneys also pointed to Townsend’s 2014 run for Clark County prosecuting attorney against current Prosecutor Tony Golik. The case is being prosecuted by the Washington Attorney General’s Office at the request of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Included in Townsend’s motion to dismiss was the results of polygraph examinations of Townsend and Townsend’s paralegal. Both polygraphs indicated they were not being deceitful when they said they did not forge the order, according to the defense’s motion.