Snohomish barber says AG’s latest threat to deny a jury trial doesn’t ‘scare me one bit’

A cease-and-desist order. A $90,000 fine. A state denial to renew his cosmetology license. And now, pushback from Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson over a jury trial.

None of this has scared 80-year-old Bob Martin, who has defied state COVID-19 mandates for the past year while keeping the scissors sharp and doors open to Stag Barber and Styling shop in Snohomish.

Now, says the U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he’s pushing back against what he calls Gov. Jay Inslee’s and Ferguson’s attempts to take away his right to a day in court about the matter.

“I paid $250 for a jury trial and now they’re telling me I can’t have one because of COVID,” Martin told Dori Monson Show listeners. “COVID has nothing to do with this. He (Ferguson) doesn’t want me to have a jury because he knows nobody likes him.”

Trying to avoid a jury trial, Martin believes, is Ferguson’s way of trying to have a judge make a decision in his case instead.

“That’s what he’s hoping for,” Martin told Dori, “but they can’t do that to me. I’m guaranteed a jury in Superior Court in Everett. I am going to hold (Ferguson’s) feet to the fire.”

Martin says he wants his day in court before a jury because he “didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Nobody got sick here. And anybody who came in, came in to support our Constitution,” he said.

Dori recalls fondly-dubbed “Bob the Barber” telling him his refusal to shut his business doors was based, in part, on his staff — disabled vets on his payroll “who needed to work to keep feeding their families.”

“When I was a kid I was on welfare, and I sweared [sic] up and down that I would never let that happen to me (as an adult),” Martin said, adding, “I’m not going to depend on the government (to take care of me). … I have faith in our Constitution. I’m going to keep on working.”

Martin, who has been cutting hair in Snohomish for 54 years, is known for using salty language when he gets riled up. He saves some of his best lines for elected state officials he calls “parasites.”

“They don’t scare me one bit. Their mouth is in high gear, but their brains are in neutral,” Martin said. “We’re not going to put up with this [deleted]. It’s going to start in the courtroom. That’s where I want to go. Somebody’s got to stand up.”

Listen to Dori’s entire interview with “Bob the Barber” of Stag Barber and Styling:

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.