Tracy Flood

Tracy Flood became Bremerton Municipal Court judge in January 2022. Within weeks her conduct was causing serious harm. Staff were repeatedly berated, severely attacked, reduced to tears, employees developed anxiety and depression, one staff member contemplated self-harm, and another increased their anxiety medication dosage. Employees described feeling humiliated, belittled, and afraid to ask clarifying questions. People who had worked in the court system for decades took pay cuts and forfeited benefits just to escape her. 19 total staff members left during her tenure — including people she herself hired as replacements. The court fell into complete operational collapse: restitution went undistributed, warrants were mishandled, defendants were wrongly detained, and dockets were mislabeled.

The Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct investigated and recommended removal — a rare and serious sanction reserved for the most severe cases. Flood stipulated to violating multiple provisions of the Code of Judicial Conduct, admitting to discourteous, harsh, and condescending behavior toward staff and attorneys. Her defense was that it was all racism — specifically "tone policing" of a Black woman. The Commission took that claim seriously and brought in LaTricia Kinlow, a highly respected Black court administrator with decades of experience, specifically because she would recognize racial bias if it existed. Kinlow found none. Kinlow also brought in yet another "woman of color", Jennefer Johnson, who also corroborated that there was no racism, and that Flood was apparently "untrainable". These women and their surrogates personally witnessed Flood yelling at staff, lying, dismissing input, and cutting off questions in meetings. Clerks Kinlow loaned to the court asked to be reassigned because they were uncomfortable with Flood's behavior. The racism defense was fabricated, and the Commission said so, concluding that removal was warranted.

The Washington Supreme Court then overrode that recommendation. With no credible supporting evidence, the court explicitly factored in Flood's race and gender, credited the racism narrative the Commission had rejected, and reduced her punishment to a 30-day unpaid suspension. A judge who drove 19 people from her court, crippled court operations, admitted to misconduct, and whose own hand-picked investigator refuted her racism claims, received a month without pay — only because she is a Black woman. The Commission's own words were unambiguous: no other judge would receive this treatment. The Supreme Court created a two-track accountability system where identity softens consequences that would otherwise end a career.

Flood's abusive behavior was abhorrent, and her accusations — which no investigators found any substance to, including multiple black and/or women of color investigators — are blatantly false and altogether outrageous. These despicable lies do severe damage to the society she is meant to serve with integrity. The fact the WA Supreme Court reinstated her despite her severe abuse of every subordinate and numerous vile lies is itself yet another indictment — a documented pattern of identity-based double standards that has infected Washington's legal system at every level.