Benton leader takes plea deal for road rage incident. Can he stay in office?
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- Benton County Commissioner Will McKay pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in court.
- The first-degree theft charge was dropped and six days were converted to service.
- Six days were converted to 60 hours of community service, mostly already served.
A Benton County commissioner won’t spend any time in jail after grabbing a phone out of a man’s hand in a Kennewick parking lot.
Commissioner Will McKay pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors — fourth-degree assault and lying to police — in a Friday morning hearing in Benton County Superior Court.
McKay admitted to “putting himself in a bad position” when he followed another driver across Kennewick and then grabbed a phone out of his hand to delete a video on Oct. 18.
“If I would have known that was a criminal issue it never would have happened because I’ve never been arrested in my whole entire life,” McKay said. “We wouldn’t have been having this court date, if I had known that.”
As part of the plea agreement, Assistant Attorney General Steve Garvin agreed to drop the felony first-degree theft charge that he was facing.
The two misdemeanor charges carried up to a year in jail. Garvin and defense attorney Nicholas Jones recommended suspending most of that time except for six days.
Those days were converted to 60 hours of community service. According to statements at the hearing, most of that has been served already.
He also has to stay out of trouble with the law for another year.
Having to serve any amount of time for a felony would have required McKay to step down from elected office until he completed his sentence.
While the victim was in the courtroom, he chose not to speak at the hearing. He did agree to the resolution, Garvin said.
“I do want to recommend the settlement to the court. A lot of thought went into it at the Attorney General’s Office,” he said. “I do think it’s a very fair resolution. I do appreciate Mr. McKay taking responsibility and accepting what he did.”
Garvin pointed out that it was very close to being much worse for both McKay and the man he assaulted. The victim could have used a weapon to defend himself, and if McKay had done more harm, then he could have faced more serious charges.
“If the victim had been injured, even minimally, even a torn fingernail we’d be looking at a very different set of charges,” Garvin said. “Thankfully, he wasn’t injured at all.”
McKay’s attorney said his client’s intentions were initially good, but the situation escalated out of control.
“He is clearly remorseful for that,” Jones said. “I’m confident your honor will not see Mr. McKay again, but maybe in a passing situation.”
Visiting Adams County Judge Peter Palubicki followed the recommendation.
The Benton-Franklin judges recused themselves from the case because of the conflict of interest. McKay’s role as a commissioner involves approving the county’s portion of court budgets.
Accused of grabbing man, taking phone
McKay and the victim crossed paths near the intersection of West 27th Avenue and South Union Street about 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18.
McKay told investigators that he saw the driver of a Mini-Cooper “driving erratically” and “flipping people off” near the roundabout, court documents said.
The other driver reported seeing the Dodge Ram that McKay was driving when it started following him on Highway 395. He said he didn’t know why the silver truck drove behind him for two miles on Highway 395 to the Gold’s Gym parking lot where they both parked.
The other driver was worried about the truck’s driver, “so he decided to exit from his vehicle and begin recording the Ram and its driver,” court documents said.
Security footage showed McKay confront the man as he was walking toward the gym, court documents said.
McKay grabbed for the cellphone and when the other man turned away, McKay “bear hugged” him and took the phone away, according to investigators.
The victim said he demanded his phone back, but McKay refused and deleted the video, court documents said.
A witness also saw the confrontation and said McKay only returned the phone after the witness said she was calling the police.
McKay drove away, but police tracked him down because the pickup truck he was driving was a rental.
He denied struggling with the other driver and said the other man was the aggressor, documents said.
When McKay was arrested, he allegedly said, “If I knew it was a crime to take this phone, I wouldn’t have done it,” court documents said.