PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly can continue to prosecute an evidence-theft case in which her husband may be called as a witness, a judge ruled earlier this week.
In response to a motion to remove her from the case, county Superior Court Judge Ken Williams concluded Tuesday that there isn’t “clear evidence of a genuine conflict” that would justify switching prosecutors.
The decision came five days after Williams declined to dismiss the case against former Clallam County Sheriff’s Office employee Staci L. Allison over the late discovery of evidence.
Allison, a former evidence technician, faces first-degree theft and money laundering charges for allegedly stealing $8,644 from the sheriff’s evidence room. That’s a fraction of the $51,251 found missing in November 2006.
The decision also puts the prosecutor in the position of possibly cross-examining her husband, Don Kelly, during the trial, now scheduled for Feb. 14 but which is expected to be pushed back to June.
Deb Kelly said Thursday that she isn’t concerned with the possibility of having to question her husband on the stand and added that she doesn’t think their relationship creates any fairness issues.
“I’m allowed to talk about the case to any witness — including my husband,” she said.
“There’s just nothing to hide or mislead. It is what it is.”
Relevance of testimony
But the prosecutor said she still plans to file a motion to dismiss her husband as a witness on the grounds that his testimony wouldn’t be relevant to the case.
The Sheriff’s Office hired Don Kelly, a retired sergeant, to organize the evidence room after the thefts. During that process, he found about $5,000 of the missing funds.
Deb Kelly said that discovery is irrelevant because that money isn’t part of the $8,644 Allison is accused of stealing.
Ralph Anderson, Allison’s attorney, disagrees.
Anderson said the found cash is central to his defense, adding that he believes it sheds doubt on the audit of the evidence room, conducted by the State Patrol, and shows that the room was so disorganized it makes it difficult to attribute blame to any one person.
Don Kelly, he said, will be his first witness.
“The first thing the jury is going to hear from the outside is the audit missed $5,000 or more,” Anderson said. “That’s sort of the overture for the rest of the case.”
Sheriff Bill Benedict said that money was found hidden in a part of the evidence room where no money is kept. He said he thinks it was kept there in order to be stolen later.
The thefts were discovered when the Sheriff’s Office found 129 empty evidence bags — which once contained $51,251 — stuffed in a plastic tube in the evidence room.
Allison has been charged with stealing a fraction of that because that’s the amount she is known to have deleted from the computer records, Benedict has said.
Deb Kelly said she is prosecuting the case to lessen her deputy prosecutors’ workload.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
