PORT ANGELES — Cashier Catherine Betts has been identified as the Clallam County employee under investigation of embezzling more than $1,500 from the county Treasurer’s Office.
County Personnel Director Marge Upham confirmed Tuesday Betts is the employee in a Peninsula Daily News interview in which she said the employee was placed on paid administrative leave as a result of that investigation.
Betts was placed on paid administrative leave May 19 after what county Treasurer Judy Scott said were record-keeping anomalies Scott discovered while reviewing office records.
Betts, who began working at the Treasurer’s Office in 2001 and earns about $45,000 a year, was taken off paid administrative leave June 1, Upham said.
The state Auditor’s Office began a special audit of Treasurer’s Office financial records June 4.
A joint Port Angeles Police Department-county Sheriff’s Department felony first-degree theft criminal investigation is on hold until the audit is completed, Sheriff Bill Benedict said Tuesday.
The audit could stretch into mid-July, the state Auditor’s Office has said.
The state Attorney General’s Office will decide if criminal charges are warranted once the audit and criminal investigation have been completed.
“We took her off paid leave pending whatever the outcome is going to be,” Upham said.
Betts did not return a call for comment Tuesday morning.
No exact amount
County and state officials have said they cannot give an exact amount that was stolen and have declined to give a ballpark figure or a range.
Benedict said in an earlier interview the amount stolen “is solid in the felony area.”
First-degree theft is punishable by one to 10 years in prison and a maximum $20,000 fine.
At least $1,500 must be stolen for a charge of first-degree theft.
Betts’ name came to light as the result of a June 3 Peninsula Daily News public records request of the county Human Resources Department.
The PDN requested all personnel action forms issued by the county under which employees were placed on administrative leave between May 15 and May 22 — the period during which Scott has said she made her discovery and placed an employee on administrative leave as a result.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols supplied the forms to the PDN that placed Betts on and took her off paid administrative leave but redacted Betts’ name.
Nichols redacted her name “on the grounds that disclosure of this information would violate the employee’s right to privacy in so far as disclosure of this information would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and, at least at this point in time, is not of legitimate concern to the public,” he said in his written response to the request.
“Obviously, should circumstances change such that the allegation(s) with regard to the suspected employee become founded, then the employee’s identity likely will be of legitimate concern to the public such that the employee’s name can be released.”
Nichols included the job classification as fiscal specialist III and listed the department as the Treasurer’s Office.
Betts is the only fiscal specialist III in the Treasurer’s Office out of six employees, Upham said.
Scott said the position is a “cashier’s” position.
The Treasurer’s Office is expected to process $17.9 million in revenue from taxing districts, county departments and individuals in 2009.
Two investigators from the state Auditor’s Office were poring over records Tuesday, agency spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said.
“They are still doing field work and crunching numbers and doing all that kind of stuff,” she said.
“It’s going to be done when it’s done.”
________
Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
