PORT ANGELES — Catherine Betts’ challenge of her multicount conviction involving the embezzlement of at least $617,467 in public funds is working its way through the state Court of Appeals, according to her lawyer.
Jordan McCabe of Seattle, representing the former Clallam County Treasurer’s Office cashier, said Friday the appeal “is basically on hold.”
The court will rule on a 60-day extension requested by the state Attorney General’s Office for filing a brief due April 18 that responds to McCabe’s brief on why Betts’ Aug. 24 sentence of 12 years should be overturned.
“I have objected to [the extension] as too long,” McCabe said.
The ruling could come as early as this week, according to David Ponzoha, clerk-administrator for the state Court of Appeals, Division II, in Tacoma.
Betts, who was found guilty by a Clallam County jury July 27 of first-degree theft, money-laundering and 19 counts of filing false and fraudulent tax returns on behalf of the county, is now serving her 12-year sentence in the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy.
McCabe is challenging the conviction on a dozen grounds, including her assertion that the trial should not have been held in Clallam County because Betts was convicted of stealing money — real estate excise tax, known as REET, proceeds paid by sellers of real estate.
“No way can you seat an impartial jury in the county in which the crime against the people of that county is being alleged,” McCabe said.
Jurors were asked when the jury was impaneled if they had knowledge of the case.
Says evidence lacking
McCabe also said there was not enough evidence to convict Betts.
“The record shows that internal controls and security measures were so lax in the Clallam County Treasurer’s Office that anyone could have helped themselves to REET proceeds,” she said in her brief.
“The state could not show that the defendant had sole access to the cash drawer,” McCabe said.
“Five court employees had direct access to the cash drawer.”
State Assistant Attorney General Scott Marlow said during Betts’ trial that Betts was the only Treasurer’s Office employee who balanced real estate excise tax transactions.
A seven-month state Auditor’s Office investigation by chief investigator Jim Brittain, who testified at the trial, determined that the REET checks were exchanged with cash from the office cash drawer and that documents were altered and destroyed, and phantom spreadsheets created, to hide the scam.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
