Raymond City Council member and attorney of law Pam Nogueira-Maneman has announced she will being running for prosecutor against current elected prosecutor Mark McClain. Nogueira is a University of Washington Law School Graduate and currently practices law at Ingram, Zelasko & Goodwin LLP in Aberdeen.
Q: We understand you are originally from Brazil. Could you tell us about your background and what brought you to Raymond?
A: I was born and raised in Brazil. I was first here in Raymond as an exchange student when I was 15 years old and was here for around 6 months. I was lucky because I was placed with the Hanson family that are just an absolutely amazing family. It was so easy to fall in love with the whole experience, the friends I've made and the area. I don't think I could've been luckier. Even when I went back home it was always I want to go visit, I want to go visit, I want to go visit.
So when I went back home I finished high school and did three semesters of a Bachelor's Degree in Law and interned in a law office in the meantime. Then from there I came back to the states and took English classes at first for us foreigners which was supposed to be a 6 month course, but I finished in 3. I then began taking some courses at a Tacoma Community College that I had taken back home and did 3 quarters there on and off. Basically I went one quarter in and one quarter out. It took longer than it should have mostly because of finances. When your on a student visa you do not qualify for student aid and you aren't allowed to work. I was fortunate enough that my parents were able to pay my tuition.
At this point I applied for the University of Washington-Tacoma. Which was the only college I applied to. I just didn't understand the concept of not getting accepted. They kept asking me what degree I wanted to go for and I kept saying I don't care I'm going to law school. They even asked "what if you don't get in" and I was like no, no, no, I'm going to get it into law school. I ended up taking philosophy, politics, and economics.
In between my Bachelors and Law School I took a year off, I just needed some refocusing to study for the LSAT. For law school I think I learned my lesson and applied for a bunch of law schools and got into a bunch of them. Which I was very happy about and ended up choosing UW. I really wanted to practice law in Washington and it worked out perfectly.
Q: The path to becoming a lawyer is said to be long and strenuous. Can you tell us about the path you took and what it was like?
A: I started my first year at UW Law School in what we call 1-L. You're not allowed to work at all per UW requirements and basically everybody takes the same classes. So I did that commuting from Raymond to UW, 130 miles each way almost everyday. On the summer of my first year I started interning for Judge Sullivan. I did that for credits during the summer and continued on because I really liked it. I ended up being offered a job in Long Beach at Guy Glenn Law and ended up leaving the internship after talking to Judge Sullivan about it.
I started as a Rule-9 intern which means its a limited license to practice law. Basically your supervised in all your first type of hearings. So every first with a client you have to have an attorney present and once they feel your fine, your good to go. That's true for district courts which is what I was doing the most. Superior court you still have to have someone present every time because people are facing a lot more serious consequences.
During my second year or 2-L after working for Judge Sullivan and Guy Glenn Law for a while. I also did a one year clinic at the Tulalip Tribe as a defense attorney. I had to take the the Tulalip Bar and was a licensed attorney. I graduated after the summer quarter of 2015 after about 23 months of law school.
I currently participate as a drug court panelist in Pacific County and serve on the Raymond City Council. I work for Ingram, Zelasko & Goodwin as an attorney and contract with Grays Harbor County to do public defense for all felonies. I mostly handle family and criminal law. I do a little of other things when and if I am able to at the time.
Q: What made you want to become a prosecutor?
A: Honestly, I think it's what I've always wanted growing up. Mostly because the system we have back home is very different. Basically we have a prosecutor's office, but private attorneys may take on and actually prosecute people on behalf of the prosecutors office or on behalf of the victim if the victim hires the person. So it's just a way of us getting the system less busy.
My dad is a criminal attorney and has done it quite a bit and I'm a daddy's girl through and through, my dad's always been my hero. So I've always wanted to be like him. That was my life growing up, I grew up listening to stories of his cases. That's what we talked about at the dinner table, it's been mylife.
Q: Do you miss home?
A: I really miss my parents a lot, but we talk daily. My mom calls me the most independent dependent person shes ever known. She actually left her job to be home with me as I was growing up and I appreciate it so much. Her and my dad actually worked together before she gave it up to stay home. I feel really bad about it now, but she says it was always worth it.
Q: What is your vision moving forward if you become prosecutor? Would you like to handle anything differently? Do you have any philosophy to your method?
A: Honestly, it's a complicated answer because it's a complicated position. So really there isn't a quick answer. Some people have asked me what are my talking points, but I am not a politician. I have some very complicated thought through ideas I would like to implement.
I think we need to have a more efficient organized way on conducting business. I think we need to make sure that every defendant has their constitutional rights respected and we're not just having people taking plea deal, after plea deal, after plea deal. I think having those very important procedure things respected because they are very important as they limit the amount of appeals, bar complaints, and that sort of thing.
I think once a person is determined guilty we need to look at what is the goal for the individual. Are we going to rehabilitate this person or just strictly punish them. We have state and federal courts say that incarceration should not be deemed for rehabilitation because rehabilitation should never be deemed a reason for incarceration.
So with that in mind we need to think if the goal is rehabilitation what are we going to do. We have some programs right now like drug court and mental health diversion that are great programs that nationwide have been proven to be extremely successful if done properly. And we just need to make sure that they are.
They are structured by people who have done a lot of research and are very educated about it. And they need to be used more, we need to have more participants in order to achieve the goals we want.
There's a lot of things I would like to change specifically about drug court, first being making it comply with federal standards and secondly change it from a post-plea to pre-plea drug court. In order to get into drug court the individual has to plead guilty and is a felon during the entire program. Most counties, like our nearby county Grays Harbor will be doing very soon, is doing a pre-plea drug court. Which means you sign a contract and admit guilt legally and it isn't entered into the court while your in the program and as long as you succeed in the program it won't be. But if you do violate drug court then it is entered and you are sentenced.
I would also like to do a mental health diversion to felons that is in place in other counties which is called a TrueBlood Diversion Program. Grays Harbor has it and I've had clients be successful in the program and I've seen it be a success story and I don't see why we shouldn't utilize that method.
It's to say that there's some people that deserve the chance at rehabilitation, but not everybody does and I understand and believe in that. There are times that rehabilitation is not an option and they need to be punished. We don't want those people in our communities and they need to learn a lesson, they need to be deterred.
Q. Probably the hardest question to answer, but what if you aren't elected as prosecutor?
A. Honestly, it hasn't really crossed my mind that much, but if I were to not be elected I would continue to work as I have and do my best to help make changes in the programs that I really feel will be beneficial to the system and communities. I definitely will continue to work on the drug court panel.
Nogueira-Maneman will be holding a meet and greet at Elixir Cafe in South Bend on April 12 at 4:00 p.m. Local residents are encouraged to attend and meet the candidate for prosecutor.
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