PORT ANGELES —Convicted embezzler Catherine A. Betts was sentenced this morning to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $607,516 in restitution after one of the largest thefts of public funds in state history.
A Superior Court jury found Betts, 47, guilty July 27 of charges connected to the theft of funds from the Clallam County Treasurer’s Office.
She was found guilty of aggravated first-degree theft, money-laundering and 19 counts of filing false or fraudulent tax returns on behalf of Clallam County for stealing more than $600,000 between June 2003 and May 2009.
The restitution is based on the amount that the county’s insurance company determined was stolen — $597,516 — and an additional $10,000 deductible the county paid on its policy.
A jury determined Betts, a former cashier for the county Treasurer’s Office, stole at least $617,467 — the amount calculated by a state Auditor’s Office investigator — from the office’s cash drawer by exchanging real estate excise tax checks paid by the public for cash.
Betts’ attorney, Loren Oakley of Clallam-Jefferson Public Defenders, immediately appealed the sentence.
Judge S. Brooke Taylor meted out the punishment in an hourlong hearing.
The theft was the fifth largest embezzlement of public funds in Washington state since 2000, according to the state Auditor’s Office.
Betts declined an offer by Taylor to address the court about the crimes, apologize or offer an explanation of what happened to the money.
Authorities have never determined the fate of the funds.
Scott Marlow, the state assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case, estimated that Betts stole public funds more than 1,000 times over six years and that $150,000 had been deposited in her account.
Betts hid the thefts by making up false check amounts on office records, altering and destroying documents, manipulating computer spreadsheets, creating hidden passwords and falsifying county records that were submitted to the state Department of Revenue, the state Auditor’s Office said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
