4:44.97

It’s a swimming record in the 500-yard freestyle at Renton High School that has stood for nearly 35 years. It’s held by Mark Prothero, a 1974 Renton High School graduate who went on to get a law degree and become a public defender.

His most famous defendant? Gary Ridgway – the Green River Killer.

You might say Prothero cut his swim fins in Lakeridge, where he grew up. His mom Shirley still lives in the family’s Lakeridge home. And, as she has done since 1963, she works for A and H Drugs.

Prothero started swimming at 7, at the Lakeridge Swim Club, one of the powerhouses over the years among the private swim clubs in South King County. He went on to swim for Renton High in the early 1970s, training and competing at what were then like-new swimming pools at Hazen and Lindbergh.

Prothero’s swimming success continued after Renton High. He swam for the University of Washington, where he earned a history degree in 1978. His law degree came from the University of San Diego. He represented the United States in several international swimming competitions.

Over the years, he has coached high school swimmers and at those private clubs.

His law career began in the early 1980s, about the same time that Ridgway – a truck painter for decades at the Kenworth plant in Renton – was killing dozens of women in South King County.

Prothero, 52, of Kent, an expert in DNA analyis, was one of Ridgway’s lead defense attorneys. Ridgway today is serving multiple life terms at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

The Ridgway case, what Prothero calls the “big one,” culminated his career as a public defender. He began to think about entering private practice.

“The case gave me the opportunity to move on to the next phases of my career – and with some confidence,” he said.