From the June 2001 Idaho Observer:

Bonner County Commission hears of Robinson's suspect prosecutorial practices

SANDPOINT -- Don Harkins told county commissioners at a public meeting Tuesday, June 5, that the McGuckin case is just one more example of prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson. Harkins, editor of The Idaho Observer, told commissioners that he is intimately familiar with the cases of three innocent people who have been imprisoned as a result of Robinson's prosecutorial practices.

Harkins has evidence suggesting that Robinson has successfully achieved convictions against Rex Prewitt (The Idaho Observer April, 2001), Doris Parkison (The Idaho Observer, February and May, 2001) and George Bondurant though he must have known them to be innocent.

Prewitt was sentenced to serve 7-10 years for being asleep on his couch and being shot by Bonner County Sheriff's Deputy Bill Tilson; Parkison was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine that only police have seen and allege to have obtained while they had her stopped for a cracked windshield; Bondurant was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend even though he was on the phone with 911 when she apparently took her own life by shooting herself.

All three people were convicted in the court of District Judge James Michaud.

Harkins told the commissioners that since he has now publicly announced that he can prove a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Robinson that he, too, may now be a candidate for such treatment. “I wanted to state for the record in this public forum that I am concerned out this,” Harkins stated at the meeting in front of at least 15 witnesses.