All the pretty Republicans

Looks like former 18th LD state rep Richard Curtis, (R-Propel Fitness Water) has flown the coop:

SPOKANE - Cody Castagna, the man charged with extorting a former state lawmaker last fall, has won the opportunity to face the star witness in the case. The only problem is that person - Richard Curtis - is nowhere to be found.

Defense Attorney Dave Partovi filed a motion late last month requesting that he be allowed to question Curtis in preparation for his client Cody Castagna's trial. Curtis is both the accuser and the star witness in the case and the Spokane Superior Court ordered that interview between Partovi and the former state representative take place prior to Castagna's upcoming trial on charges of theft, extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion.

[...]

The only hitch to the court-ordered interview between attorney Partovi and Curtis is that no one knows Curtis' current whereabouts. In court earlier this month prosecutors said they were not sure where he is currently living. His last home of record was in La Center in southwestern Washington but is now reportedly living somewhere outside of the state.

So a former state official, who hired one of the state's preeminent white collar criminal defense attorneys, and somehow arranged to get completely off any charges for solicitation, is nowhere to be found. Uh huh. And the HROC and the Centralia Mafia had absolutely nothing to do with whisking Curtis out of state.

So if the Spokane County prosecutor can't produce their star witness, how long until the charges against Castagna get thrown out? There was quite the media frenzy to paint Castagna as the little hustler with a long criminal record, but at no point in the process has he been a flight risk. The former state official? Not so much.

Of course, we'll never hear about any of these latest developments in The Columbian, since it isn't an exclusive given to Lou ("My House Can Talk") Brancaccio.

Many years from now, there will be reports of Richard Curtis sightings, and yarns will be told of his legendary escape from Washington State, where the stockings ran and the heels broke. Cormac McCarthy will option the rights to write a movie script of a down on his luck Republican state representative who heads south, down Mexico way. Brand Republican wishes this story would just go away, but like DB Cooper, it keeps popping up, just in time for election season.