Samuel Satterfield served as a municipal attorney for multiple Lewis County cities over the last few years. Most recently, he was listed as the city attorney for Chehalis and as of Nov. 20 he was still listed on their website as the prosecuting attorney for the City of Chehalis, despite resigning his law license in lieu of disbarment and agreeing to never practice law in the U.S. again in October of this year.
Satterfield’s alleged conduct, as stated in disciplinary counsel’s statement of alleged misconduct, related to his representation of a client in a family law matter. Satterfield’s alleged misconduct includes: failing to diligently file motions and schedule hearings; lying to his client about hearings being scheduled, postponed and canceled and falsely attributing responsibility for the delays to court or opposing counsel; billing a client for work that was not actually performed; and lying to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel during the course of a disciplinary investigation. This disciplinary action is readily available on the state bar website for anyone who would like to view it.
I find it peculiar that local media has still yet to cover this information. Mr. Satterfield actively prosecuted other people on behalf of local governments for years. The quality of his legal character is certainly something we the people would care to know about after our taxes funded his position, especially considering he lied to investigators before resigning his license.
How many people who were prosecuted by Mr. Satterfield may consider their right to an appeal or request a review of their case now that his dishonesty has been proven and is well known? How many others has he wronged in his brief tenure as an attorney?
We may never know the true extent of it all because local media doesn't appear to have a desire to look into it. One thing I know though, it certainly helps to be connected in the right family when things like this happen and you want to keep them quiet.
Kyle Wheeler
Toledo
