Kaiser manager makes deal over obscene phone call
John Craig - Staff writer
COLVILLE, Wash. -- A supervisor at Kaiser Aluminum's Mead smelter has accepted a plea bargain to resolve a charge that he made an obscene and harassing telephone call to the wife and mother of two Kaiser workers.
The deal calls for the Stevens County District Court charge against Kim Brookshire, 44, to be dismissed if he undergoes counseling and stays out of trouble for a year. Brookshire gave up his right to challenge the admissibility of the police report on the alleged harassment.
Brookshire is accused of using "lewd, lascivious, profane, indecent or obscene words" in a call to Jeanne Jokkel, 45, last summer.
At the time, Jokkel was active in "Spouses of Steel" protests of Kaiser's lockout of United Steelworkers members, including her husband, Paul. Although she speculated that the alleged harassment might have been related to the labor dispute, Jokkel acknowledged that a personal dispute between her family and Brookshire's may have been at the root of the incident.
Both families lived in southern Stevens County, near Deer Park, and they had social contacts outside their jobs. The Jokkels said they and others recognized Brookshire's voice in an obscene message on their answering machine a day after an incident involving children of the two families.
Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe said Brookshire continues to work at the Mead plant.
"This is a personal matter, and the company is not involved," she said.
Telephone harassment is a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.