Man charged with threatening King County judge

Mark Ronald Goss, a felon with mental health issues, was charged with intimidating a King County District Court judge after police say he told his caseworker that the judge would be "good as gone."

King County District Court Judge Michael Finkle presided over Goss' mental health court hearing, and Goss' became agitated with the judge for his how Goss would have to report he was taking his medication daily. His previous case was for violating a protection order.

About a week after the hearing, police say Goss called his Sound Mental Health caseworkers and made the threat against Finkle. The caseworker told Goss' probation officer, who relayed the information to the judge.

"The judge has had prior experiences dealing with defendants who had made threats in varying mental states and even in psychotic episodes," Deputy Prosecutor Charles Sherer wrote in charging documents. "The judge did not consider those to be true threats because of the state of mind those defendants were in. In this case, the judge took the threat seriously based on his own observations of the defendant getting upset in court coupled with his knowledge of the defendant's current status with Mental Health Court and a likelihood that the defendant could decompensate if the defendant did not take his medication as prescribed."

Goss' criminal history includes convictions for domestic violence harassment, assault, violation of no-contact and harassment orders, resisting arrest, malicious mischief and hit and run.

Goss, 55, was arrested by at his Renton home and remains in King County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bond. His arraignment, where he is expected to enter a plea, is scheduled for later this month.

Finkle, a University of California Los Angeles law school graduate with an MBA from Seattle University, has been a King County District Court judge since 2010.

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