By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter
A deputy chief of the Lynnwood Police Department has resigned and today pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle to stealing money and evidence.
Prosecutors say they will ask for an extraordinarily long sentence for Paul Watkins because they believe he obstructed the federal investigation into the thefts by destroying documents just hours before agents served search warrants at his house, office and locker at Lynnwood police headquarters.
Watkins, 50, could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for the charge of theft from a federally funded local agency. The Lynnwood police department receives a number of federal grants.
In his plea, Watkins admitted that he stole between $70,000 and $120,000 over four years while he was commander of the department’s Criminal Investigative Division. The money was seized during criminal investigations and was supposed to either be forfeited to the city or returned to its owners.
Court documents say Watkins “abused this authority by falsely representing that he was returning money to the owner, when in fact in many cases he was keeping the seized money for himself.”
Records show Watkins and his wife have struggled financially over the years and have filed for bankruptcy four times in recent years. On several occasions, Watkins deposited cash in his bank account on the same days that he claimed to have returned seized funds.
Court documents say that, in exchange for his guilty plea on this charge, the federal government would not prosecute him for other unidentified crimes the FBI uncovered during the course of its investigation. Snohomish County has also said it will not charge Watkins, although he will have to return more than $14,000 in cash he stole in 2002.
That money was among evidence seized in a drug case. Also missing in connection with that case were two handguns and two grams of cocaine.
At least one handgun missing from the department’s evidence room was seized during the FBI searches.
Watkins was charged late Thursday and appeared today to plead guilty before Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler.
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