DUI Seattle, Seattle DUI Lawyer, Seattle DUI Attorney

By Yu Nakayama
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

OLYMPIA — Sen. Mike Carrell wants everyone on the road to know who’s been caught driving drunk.

He’s sponsoring a bill that would require people convicted of drunken driving to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars for one year — once their driving privileges have been restored.

“I’ve talked to the law-enforcement agencies and they think it would be an awfully good idea to have a way of visibly telling sheep from goats out on the road,” said Carrell, R-Lakewood.

It also could help law-abiding drivers as a signal to give a wider berth to anyone behind the wheel of a car with bright-yellow plates, Carrell said.

But not everyone agrees that such a public designation is the best way to go after drunken drivers.

“The first thing it reminded me of was reading ‘The Scarlet Letter’ in high school,” said Sen. Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island, referring to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel in which the heroine must wear the letter “A” on her chest as punishment for adultery.

“Obviously I am opposed to drunken drivers. I think everyone is,” Weinstein said. “But I don’t think this is going to solve anything, and it will have the unintended consequence of embarrassing a lot of innocent people.”

The bill, Senate Bill 6402, was approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee and now is before the Transportation Committee.

DUI offenders would be charged $10 per plate for cars. Motorcycles and mopeds would require just one plate, at a cost of $2.

Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota and Oregon have similar requirements for DUI offenders.

In Ohio, people convicted of drunken driving are issued yellow plates with crimson numbers. In Iowa, their plates contain the letter “Z.” Offenders in Minnesota are issued plates that bear a unique series of numbers, and in Oregon, convicted drunken drivers display a special sticker on their license plates.

Weinstein said the rule would be unfair: What if a man committed a drunken-driving offense, but he and his wife have only one car?

“Why should she be embarrassed and have the public view her as a criminal when she’s completely innocent?” Weinstein asked.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving “is not into shunning” convicted drunken drivers and doesn’t support the license-plate idea, said Katherine Kovacich, regional administrator for MADD in the Pacific Northwest.

Instead, Kovacich said MADD favors legislation that would allow sobriety checkpoints and use of interlock devices that prevent a drunken driver from starting a car. Washington state already requires ignition-interlock devices. A proposal by Gov. Christine Gregoire to let police set up sobriety checkpoints under certain conditions appears to have died in the Legislature after failing to attract enough support.

“These vanity plates have no scientific data to support them that links their use to a reduction in DWI offenses,” Kovacich said.

Carrell said he recognizes that innocent drivers wouldn’t want to use a car with the yellow plates, but he hopes that possibility would make people think twice before drinking and driving.

“I think it would be a very large deterrent,” he said.

But even if the bill doesn’t act as a deterrent, it’s still important to mark DUI offenders, Carrell said.

“If you have somebody who has [a] history of driving under the influence, I think it’s of great value to the general public and law enforcement to spot such people,” he said. “Otherwise you’re looking for a needle in the haystack.”

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By The Associated Press

OREGON CITY, Ore. — When they got Meagan Harper to the hospital, her blood alcohol level was .55 percent — about seven times greater than Oregon’s legal limit for driving.

“You just don’t see numbers that high,” said Dr. Mohamud Daya, an Oregon Health & Science University associate professor and emergency room physician.

At that level, some people are so drunk they stop breathing, he said.

Harper has drunken driving convictions in Washington and Multnomah counties and was convicted in Wasco County of operating a boat while intoxicated, said Ryan Chiotti, deputy district attorney in Clackamas County. He said she is on probation for driving under the influence and is awaiting trial on another drunken driving charge next month.

A Clackamas deputy found her passed out in a car at a pizza restaurant on Nov. 28.

She appeared in court Wednesday. Chiotti urged she be jailed, under high bail, as “an extraordinary danger to the community.”

Judge Patrick Gilroy set her bail at $50,000 and told her to get help, “or you’ll end up dead or taking someone with you.”

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By Peyton Whitely
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

The results of a breath test obtained from King County Councilwoman Jane Hague after she was pulled over for suspected drunken driving cannot be used in court because she was not properly warned of the implications of consenting to the test, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling will make it harder for prosecutors to win a conviction against Hague, who was arrested after a King County sheriff’s deputy stopped her June 2 on Highway 520. Court records show Hague’s blood-alcohol readings were 0.135 and 0.141 percent; the state’s level of intoxication is 0.08.

But jurors in her trial will not be allowed to hear testimony on the readings after Wednesday’s ruling by King County District Court Judge Peter Nault, which turns on the wording of the warning given to drunken-driving suspects before blood-alcohol tests are administered.

The portion of the warning that Nault found to be lacking pertains to what drivers are told can result once they submit to a blood or breath test. The warning indicates that drivers who are under 21 could lose their driving privileges if they are found to be in violation of two state laws pertaining to drunken driving but fails to provide the same specific warning for drivers 21 and older.

Defense attorney William Kirk argued Wednesday that the warnings would seem to apply only to drivers younger than 21. A properly worded warning would use language that made it clear that it pertained to all motorists, “regardless of age,” he said.

“I have heard this argument quite a few times,” said Nault, who said the warnings law-enforcement officers give in administering the breath tests are inadequate.

Lynn Moberly, special prosecutor in the case, said Nault’s decision was “very disappointing.” But she said it is possible to win a DUI case without using breath-test results.

“It makes it more difficult,” she said, although officer statements and physical evidence still can be used at trial.

According to the charges, Hague was eastbound on 520 near the east end of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge at 11:03 p.m. June 2 when a deputy saw her car nearly hit the median divider twice. The deputy stopped the car and called the State Patrol for assistance. Hague was arrested and taken to the Clyde Hill Police Department, where the breath test was administered.

Hague, 61, had said she had attended a charity dinner in Seattle where she had “a couple glasses” of wine and was returning to her Bellevue home when she was stopped.

Hague was charged with DUI under her married name of Jane Hague Springman on July 16. She pleaded not guilty July 30.

The argument used by Hague’s attorney in seeking to exclude the test results isn’t new and is among many that attorneys use to fight DUI prosecution, defense attorneys say. In fact, the law was revised in 2004 after several years of successful challenges to the breath-testing process.

But even the 2004 revision opened the door to challenges, including one that threw out the breath test of former Seattle Sonic Rashard Lewis after he was stopped for suspected drunken driving in October 2005 on Mercer Island. His argument, like that used by hundreds of other defendants, was that legislators had overstepped their authority in writing the law and leaving judges with little discretion in accepting the tests. Lewis eventually pleaded guilty to reckless driving.

“In the last three or four years, [blood-alcohol] readings have been suppressed about 50 percent of the time for various reasons, including implied-consent warnings,” said Kurt Boehl, a Seattle criminal-defense attorney.

The state’s implied-consent law, which is at the center of the Hague ruling, requires that anyone holding a Washington state driver’s license must consent to blood or breath tests if an officer suspects intoxicated driving. Failure to do so could result in the loss of the driver’s license.

The effect is that when people drive, they give up a right that would be applied in other crimes. That right involves constitutional provisions that a defendant doesn’t have to incriminate himself and is innocent until proved guilty.

In a theft case, for example, police would have to get a search warrant to get samples of someone’s blood. In a DUI case, a driver, through the implied-consent agreement, has acknowledged that it’s OK for police to take a blood sample.

But Kirk, Hague’s attorney, argued Wednesday that application of the implied-consent law depends on drivers agreeing to the tests “knowingly and intelligently” and after “having been fully informed of the consequences.”

As written, Kirk argued, the warning given to Hague was incomplete and failed to fully document the consequences of allowing the test to be administered.

“The blame doesn’t lie with the State Patrol,” said Kirk, but rather with the language the Legislature adopted in 2004.

Also Wednesday, Nault approved a tentative schedule in the Hague case that calls for jury selection to begin Jan. 31 and a trial to be held Feb. 5-8.

During Wednesday’s hearing Nault asked that the blood-alcohol readings not be reported by the media in order to comply with guidelines relating to the discussion of evidence before trial. The results were made public in August, however, and have been reported previously.

Hague was present in the Redmond courtroom but said nothing during the proceedings and left without comment. Hague, a Republican, won re-election over challenger Richard Pope earlier this month. Her council district includes Mercer Island, Kirkland and most of Bellevue.

Moberly, who was named a special deputy prosecuting attorney in the case Aug. 28 because of a potential conflict of interest involving the King County Prosecutor’s Office, had previously asked for a new judge. Initially, Moberly gave no reason for the request other than to say she didn’t think Nault would be fair and impartial. But in a subsequent affidavit she cited alleged irregularities in arraignment proceedings and a failure by Nault to follow court rules.

Nault denied Moberly’s request Wednesday, saying she had failed to file the affidavit in a timely fashion.

State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill said he was not surprised by Nault’s ruling, which he said was consistent with rulings the judge has made in other drunken-driving cases.

“We will continue to arrest impaired drivers wherever and whenever we find them,” Merrill said. “At some point society needs to conduct an analysis of the process and see where the breakdown is in the judicial process.”

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By Nancy Bartley
Seattle Times staff reporter

About 25 percent of the state’s minorities believe the State Patrol uses racial profiling in its policing practices, but two studies released today by Washington State University say it’s a perception and not reality.

WSU reviewed different kinds of traffic stops — involving radar, aircraft and at night — when a trooper was unlikely to know a driver’s race prior to the stop and they said they found no significant difference between those and daytime stops.

The study found the racial breakdown of those stopped, cited and searched for the most part reflected the makeup of the local community.

A second study focusing on customer service indicated that almost 25 percent of the 11,000 minority households surveyed in 2007 still believed the patrol used racial profiling. “It’s a very deadly belief to think your police are not fair in this regard,” said Dr. Nicholas Lovrich, one of the researchers.

That perception can be created simply by hearing of a racial-profiling case in another part of the nation, Lovrich said, and not by any contact with the State Patrol.

“As long as that perception exists, it’s a problem for us,” said State Patrol Chief John Batiste in announcing the results at a news conference at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

He said the Patrol plans to do more community outreach, especially in minority communities, to explain what they do.

The surveys by WSU’s Division of Governmental Studies and Services indicated that 82 percent of those who received tickets felt they were treated fairly.

This is the fourth time the State Patrol has asked WSU to look for evidence of racial bias and the eighth time the university has looked at how the public views troopers. Previous studies have shown similar results.

“If you are trying to send a message out, being fair in a traffic stop is very important,” Lovrich said.

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IAN DEMSKY; The News Tribune

A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy has been suspended from duty after being arrested twice within two hours Saturday on suspicion of drunken driving.

In both cases, his blood-alcohol level was reported to be more than twice the legal limit.
Robert Glen Carpenter, 37, pleaded not guilty in Chelan County District Court on Monday.
Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said Tuesday that he was launching an internal investigation into the South Hill patrol officer’s conduct.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation and the results will be made public,” he said. “I expect our people to be fully subject to the law, as are all citizens. We have a long history of holding our people accountable.”

A current phone listing for Carpenter was not available. He has been with the department since 1993 and has a clean record, department officials said.

According to Washington State Patrol reports, Carpenter was pulled over by state troopers on Highway 2 in Chelan County at 12:30 a.m. Saturday after being clocked going 95 mph past troopers conducting another traffic stop.

Outside his truck, Carpenter had a hard time maintaining his balance and smelled strongly of alcohol, trooper Albert Arrey wrote in his report. A tall can of Foster’s beer was found on the floor inside the truck, about 80 percent full.

At 1:54 a.m., the 200-pound deputy’s blood-alcohol level was 0.21, records show. It’s illegal to drive with a level of 0.08 or higher.

Carpenter also had his loaded .40-caliber Glock service pistol in a holster under his coat.
While sheriff’s officials said it’s legal to carry a firearm in Washington while drunk, Pastor said, “We do not require our people to carry weapons while off duty. I do not believe anyone should carry a weapon while intoxicated.”

Carpenter was released into the custody of his girlfriend, who came to pick up Carpenter’s truck and dog, according to the report.

State Patrol Lt. Mike Warren said troopers have discretion on DUI arrests whether to book suspects into jail or release them if someone can pick them up.

“He was not given any favors,” Warren said of Carpenter.

Reports don’t say how long after his 2 a.m. breath test Carpenter was released, but he was stopped again by a Chelan County deputy at 2:44 a.m. for speeding.

State Patrol Sgt. Art Nelson responded to the scene, and in his report said, “Based on my training and experience and with the knowledge that less than one hour before the stop Carpenter’s breath alcohol concentration was above 0.20 grams per 210 Liters of breath it would be impossible for it to have declined appreciably prior to his being stopped.”

Carpenter was booked into the Chelan County Jail and his truck was towed.

Instead of answering Nelson’s questions about whether Carpenter understood his rights, Carpenter just nodded his head, Nelson said.

“It was clearly obvious Carpenter was exercising his constitutional right to remain silent,” the sergeant wrote.

A new breath sample taken at 4:22 a.m. showed a reading of 0.168.

After the test, Carpenter said he was embarrassed and thanked Nelson for his professionalism, the report said.

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PAHOKEE, Florida (AP) — Two Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies who had tried to stop a stolen vehicle on a rural road in the Everglades were killed when they were struck by a fellow deputy’s patrol car early Wednesday.

The driver of the patrol car was injured, authorities said.

Scores of officers combed the region looking for two suspects in the car theft, and later said they arrested one man.

The deputies had put spikes on a road that punctured the stolen car’s tires. But when they ran to remove the spikes from the road they were struck at about 1:45 a.m. by a canine patrol vehicle that was pursuing the car thieves, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

“They probably did not estimate the K-9 was coming at the speed that it was,” Bradshaw said at a news conference.

“You’re talking about a road that is absolutely pitch black,” he said.

“Everybody involved in this was doing their job. They were doing it the right way but this is a dangerous job,” he said.

The stolen car stopped after its tires were punctured and two suspects fled into sugarcane fields. The patrol car that struck the deputies slid into a canal.

At least 75 officers and several canine units spent five hours combing the fields between Pahokee and Belle Glade.

Police later arrested Ernie Kirk Daley Jr., 19, and worked to identify the second suspect, Bradshaw said. He said they would be charged with four felony counts of fleeing and eluding a police officer with injury.

The sheriff said Daley was tracked down with help from residents. “This is a very tight-knit community. They love these deputies,” Bradshaw said.

The sheriff identified the dead officers as 13-year veteran Donta Manuel, 33, and Jonathan Wallace, 23, who had been with the sheriff’s office for 1½ years.

The driver of the patrol car that hit them was treated for a concussion and a broken arm, Bradshaw said. A trainee in the car was treated for minor injuries and a police dog was uninjured.

The dead deputies are among several Florida law enforcement officers killed this year.
A Broward County deputy was killed November 7 while taking a suspect to court; the suspect was charged in the slaying. Another Broward officer was killed August 10 while looking for stolen vehicles, but no one has been arrested.

In September, a Miami-Dade County police officer was killed by a man who ambushed him and three other officers with an assault weapon. A suspect was killed by officers hours later.

In January, a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy and the sheriff’s wife were killed in a shootout in the Panhandle, and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper was shot to death when he tried to make a traffic stop in central Florida.

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By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

Frustrated by the slow pace of reforming the way sheriff’s deputies are supervised and disciplined, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr wants authority to bargain labor contracts directly with the deputies’ union.

Under the county charter, County Executive Ron Sims represents the county in contract talks with the King County Police Officers Guild, which represents deputies.

Rahr, an elected official, proposes that the charter be amended to put her in charge of negotiations with her employees. “I’m being held accountable for the management of my organization, but somebody else is bargaining the contract,” Rahr said.

Some key recommendations made by the Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Panel on police misconduct and discipline last year haven’t been implemented because they are the subject of negotiations, now under way, with the deputies union.

The contract will determine, for example, whether a program is created to work with troubled deputies, whether an independent oversight office will review the way complaints are handled and whether deputies will undergo regular performance evaluations. The current three-year contract expires at the end of December, but a new contract isn’t expected to be completed until sometime next year.

Rahr, the Metropolitan King County Council and County Executive Ron Sims have taken steps to implement panel recommendations that don’t require changes in the union contract, such as hiring more sergeants to supervise deputies, improving officer training and posting citizen complaint forms and a policies and procedures manual on the Web.

Her proposal to negotiate her own contracts has the backing of former County Executive and Blue Ribbon Panel Chairman Randy Revelle. The panel, preparing a progress report on its 2006 recommendations, will consider Wednesday whether to back a charter amendment.

Sims, then-Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng and the County Council appointed the Blue Ribbon Panel at Rahr’s request last year in the wake of articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer alleging officer misconduct and breakdowns in discipline and accountability.

Sims’ labor liaison, Kathi Oglesby, says it makes sense for the county executive to continue to represent management in contract talks with all of the county’s 30-plus bargaining units. “We need to make sure that salary improvements and those kind of things fit in with the whole county budget, because he’s responsible for that,” she said.

Sims negotiates contracts with union-represented employees of other elected county officials, including judges, the assessor, the prosecuting attorney and the County Council.

Representatives of the elected officials are present during talks and help direct county bargaining strategy, Oglesby said.

Rahr said her top priority in the negotiations is to implement the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendations, while the executive’s highest goal is to contain health-care costs. “It’s difficult to get my top priority to really be the top priority,” she said.

Oglesby acknowledged Sims’ commitment to controlling health costs for the county’s 14,000 employees. But, she added, “I would not say that the Blue Ribbon task-force issues are not also top priority for the executive. I would say that’s a shared priority.”

Chris Vick, attorney for the Police Officers Guild, declined to discuss bargaining issues. But he said deputies are concerned about the possible makeup of the Office of Independent Oversight proposed by the Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Panel.

“This group, like probably every police group, is most concerned that the process not be politicized,” Vick said. In too many cities, including Seattle, he said, investigations of complaints against police are reviewed “by somebody who doesn’t have the foggiest idea what he’s talking about.”

Rahr and Revelle have made pitches to the county Charter Review Commission for a charter amendment giving the sheriff authority to negotiate with her employees. The commission is scheduled to tell the County Council in May what charter amendments it thinks should be put up for a public vote.

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By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

Bus travel in Seattle is neither speedy nor charming, but old No. 2 enjoys a decided weight advantage in jockeying to get past the disruptive, seemingly endless construction mess at Fifth and Seneca.

With its variable lane closures, the “Seneca Squeeze” has become a downtown driving challenge for car and bus alike. At times, it has turned into the “Seneca Veer.”

“The Veer” is a phrase best known to college football fans, describing an option offense developed by University of Houston coach Bill Yeoman and deployed for 25 years.

In downtown Seattle driving, however, “The Veer” is when a closure forces you to change lanes to the left, and then construction in the next block forces you over to the right.

No competently run city should allow something this dangerous, and neither should Seattle.
After negotiating “The Veer” on three downtown streets, I used a pre-election phone conversation with City Councilman Tom Rasmussen to suggest municipal oversight.

He agreed, citing a recent bus trip. Passengers had been let off on a blocked-off sidewalk in the midst of construction on Fourth Avenue at the edge of Belltown.

The City Council is talking up a storm lately about installing secret and not-so-secret cameras for purposes of catching and fining scofflaw motorists.

Rasmussen has advocated adding cameras at 20 intersections to those that watch my every move (when not aboard No. 2) at Denny Way and Fairview Avenue North. Last week, Councilwoman Jan Drago touted a $170,000 bus that will secretly photograph speeders in school zones.

For all the planned motorist tracking, we’ve had pretty nasty construction-related accidents of late. And some folks at City Hall are finally noticing lax supervision in a city on the build.

Until recently, we had a benchmark not far from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Building.

Western Avenue becomes a three-lane northbound commuter route from 3 to 6 p.m. Parking ends. Apparently, privilege does not. Over a period of months, a large trash bin blocked the right lane — with a tube snaking down from construction higher on the building. The blockage continued long after work was done.

Like Rome, Seattle is a city built on several hills. We’ll never be called the “Eternal City,” but those using our streets face perennial problems.

Hilltop surprises are a case in point. Drive over the lip of a hill and — without warning — construction has a lane or two blocked. A simple sign or signs, “Construction Ahead” or “Lane Closures Ahead,” would allow people to slow down or turn off to outflank the mess. Not in the Emerald City.

At a Seattle Department of Transportation budget presentation in late September, Councilman Richard Conlin posed a series of questions.

Based on SDOT’s answers, City Auditor Susan Cohen has asked “if there is any council interest in an audit on this subject.” Rasmussen sent over the memo of his exchange with Cohen after the budget presentation.

Cohen cites a recent whistle-blower investigation of the Street Use Permit section of SDOT by Wayne Barnett, executive director of the Ethics and Elections Commission.

“Specifically, (Barnett) noted inefficiencies of the Street Use Permit process and low employee morale,” Cohen wrote to council members. “SDOT is unable to track the life cycle of a permit from application to final billing.
“Unless construction work in City rights-of-way is properly authorized and inspected, the city cannot ensure that the areas are safe for public use, nor can they ensure that the location of utility lines is properly documented for official records.”

Residents, cars and bicycles can get banged up, but the city, too, is at risk.

People who get injured on city property, especially by badly marked or unmarked dangers, can sue the city.

And construction could hit and damage improperly recorded utility lines beneath downtown streets.

Cohen cites past, positive interaction between the city and developer/contractors. “Working with the Washington Mutual contractor, they reduced the number of lanes and sidewalk closure time to the extent that the permit costs were reduced by 200 k’s.”

But that was then, and Cohen goes on: “SDOT needs to be proactive with the developers. From my walks down Fifth Avenue, they do not appear to be using the planning tools or being proactive.”

Amen from Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street.

Rasmussen told me he has voiced his concerns to SDOT — and been ignored.

He thinks an audit would be a good idea and urged Cohen to expand its scope.

“Periodically, I receive complaints about city sidewalks and lanes being allowed to be closed for construction without adequate warnings or options to drivers or pedestrians,” he wrote back.

We’re less than 48 hours from the Christmas shopping surge — oops, political incorrectness, holiday shopping spree — that draws thousands of visitors downtown. It’s the bright lights-big city season.

Amid the obstacle course of torn-off sidewalks and blocked-off lanes, locals and visitors alike should ask a question:

Is the city doing an adequate job of keeping people safe as they move about downtown?

Heck no!

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By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

A former King County Metro bus driver who was involved in a head-on collision in April that killed a man in Enumclaw will not face felony charges.

Sandie Olosky, 35, was fired from Metro last month after the transit company determined that the crash, which killed 21-year-old Michael Dahlquist, could have been prevented.

The State Patrol requested that a misdemeanor negligent driving charge be filed against Olosky. King County prosecutors have decided that the case did not warrant a more serious felony charge.

“There is not enough evidence to support a felony charge of vehicular homicide,” said prosecutors’ spokesman Dan Donohoe. “It will be sent over to district court for a possible filing of negligent driving, second-degree.”

On April 17, Olosky was driving a Metro bus on Highway 164 when she swerved into oncoming lanes to avoid hitting a vehicle that had slowed. The bus hit the bumper of that vehicle before colliding with a pickup driven by Dahlquist, who died at the scene.

The State Patrol determined Olosky had realized too late that the vehicle in front of her was slowing down.

Olosky had previously been fired by Metro in 2005 for stopping her bus on the West Seattle Bridge for what investigators didn’t think to be solid reasons. But she was rehired last year after arbitration.

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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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