Cheapskate Seattle judge living in $1.4m house fired for putting official court seal on forged document to try and bag $10 parking discount

The Washington Supreme Court removed a county-level judge from the bench after he admitted to forging a document to try to get a $10 discount on parking.

In 2023, while working as a pro tem, or temporary, judge for King County District Court, David Ruzumna repeatedly tried to get the county employee discount to park at Goat Hill Garage, including by flashing his judicial robes.

Instead of paying $30, he would have paid $20. As a pro tem judge, Ruzumna did not qualify for the discount, something a parking attendant explained to him on at least two occasions, according to the state Supreme Court ruling.

Pro tem judges are typically paid on a per diem basis and in King County, they do not receive an employee ID badge, a requirement for the discount.

Despite having his own law practice and living in a $1.4 million Seattle home, Ruzumna was determined to get the cheaper parking he thought he was entitled to. 

His new strategy involved presenting the parking attendant a document that said he was ’employed’ with the court and was apparently signed by District Court Judge Rebecca Robertson. The document also had an official court seal stamped onto it.

The state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct concluded that Ruzumna ‘attempted to falsely convey to the parking attendant that Judge Robertson approved his use of the discount’.

Judge Lisa O’Toole, a member of the King County Court’s executive committee, described Ruzumna’s actions as ‘shocking, to say the least’.

‘Whether Mr. Ruzumna was entitled to an employee discount or not was not the concern. The concern was the incredible lack of judgment in preparing this letter and affixing a judge’s signature to it and then passing it off as true,’ O’Toole said.

Last year, the Commission on Judicial Conduct ruled that Ruzumna violated judicial code and recommended that he be removed.

Ruzumna challenged that decision and said he should only be admonished by the court. He later testified that the document he admitted to forging was a ‘joke’.   

He also argued that the document he created had ‘multiple random stamps’ on it, which the state Supreme Court determined was a lie based on the testimony of the parking attendant and the photograph she took of the document.

The court’s opinion described Ruzumna’s testimony as contradictory at times and concluded he had demonstrated ‘a lack of integrity and judgment’. 

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Ruzumna told the outlet that he has been ‘honest and consistent about what happened’ since 2023.

‘I acknowledged my mistake immediately and tried to take responsibility for it,’ he said. ‘I respect the Court, but it got this one completely wrong. … I took this fight as far as it can go, so at this point all I can do is move on with my life with the same passion, integrity and gratitude that has always defined me to those who know me and have worked with me.’

The Daily Mail approached Ruzumna for further comment.

Ruzumna has served as a pro tem judge since 2013 for eight different courts, including the Seattle Municipal Court and the Snohomish County District Court.

It is unclear if his removal from the bench in King County will affect his other judicial appointments. 

Ruzumna has been a lawyer for nearly 30 years, and his practice focuses on real estate, business and criminal defense.

In 2012, he ran for a permanent judicial position on the King County Superior Court but received the fewest votes out of the four candidates in the primary.