Ron Reynolds Lawsuit Against Coroner Heads to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

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A lawsuit related to a 2011 inquest into the death of Ronda Reynolds is headed to the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. District Court Judge Ben Settle granted a summary judgement in favor of Lewis County and Coroner Warren McLeod in a decision issued April 7, dismissing Ron Reynolds’ lawsuit, and calling Reynolds’ arguments that the county violated his constitutional rights “unavailing.” 

Reynolds filed a notice of appeal of Settle’s decision on May 1 with the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. 

Settle wrote that McLeod was within his rights to hold an inquest into Ronda Reynolds’ death.

“In Washington, an inquest proceeding is one of four ‘established, recognized and legally permissible methods for determining the existence of probable cause,’” the judge wrote in his April 7 decision. “Any coroner, in his or her discretion, may hold an inquest if the coroner suspects that the death of a person was unnatural, or violent, or resulted from unlawful means, or from suspicious circumstance.” 

McLeod said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Attorney John Justice of Olympia, who represents McLeod and Lewis County in the lawsuit, said he was impressed with Settle’s decision.

“I thought it was very thorough and well-reasoned,” Justice said. “I think he nailed it.”

Reynolds and his attorney, Rick Cordes, of Olympia, have until Aug. 10 to file a brief on his notice of appeal with the court. Cordes did not return a request for comment. 

Justice said Ninth Circuit appeals sometimes take up to a year.

“I think the Ninth Circuit will probably affirm Judge Settle’s decision,” he said. The issues were pretty straightforward. I think it’s unlikely the Court of Appeals will overturn any part of the decision.”

Reynolds’ wife, Ronda Reynolds, was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 16, 1998, in a bedroom closet of their Toledo home.

Although the death was initially ruled a suicide, Reynolds’ mother, Barb Thompson, successfully petitioned for a judicial review of the case and in 2009, a jury determined Reynolds’ death was not a suicide. 

McLeod took office as Lewis County Coroner in 2011, and convened an inquest into Reynolds’ death. 

The jury unanimously ruled that Ronda Reynolds’ manner of death was homicide and identified Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan Reynolds as responsible for her death. 

After the inquest, McLeod issued arrest warrants for Reynolds and his son. The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office declined to press charges.

Reynolds first filed a lawsuit against Lewis County and McLeod in 2013, arguing that McLeod had no legal basis to conduct an inquest 13 years after his wife’s death, that the inquest was held in a “negligent and reckless manner,” and that a subsequent warrant for Reynolds’ arrest violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. 

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants to be supported by probable cause. The Fourteenth Amendment addresses the right to due process.

“Viewed in the light most favorable to (Ron) Reynolds, the evidence in the record establishes that Reynolds’s arrest was based on probable cause,” Settle wrote. “Because probable cause supported the arrest warrant, Coroner McLeod did not violate Reynolds’s Fourth Amendment rights.”

True-crime author Ann Rule wrote about the case in her 2010 book “In the Still of the Night: The Strange Death of Ronda Reynolds and Her Mother’s Unceasing Quest for the Truth.”