PORT ANGELES — The state Attorney General’s Office has filed a felony theft charge against Catherine Betts, the former Clallam County Treasurer’s Office cashier who is being investigated in the theft in $617,467 of public funds, Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said today.
Gallagher said assistant Attorney General Scott Marlow filed the first-degree theft charge in Clallam County Superior Court today.
He declined to say when Betts would be arrested. Port Angeles police and county officials have been tight-lipped about the investigation to avoid tainting a jury pool in Clallam County, Gallagher said.
“I believe that the citizens of this county have the right to have this case tried in this county and sit in judgment of the suspect,” Gallagher said.
Clallam County Treasurer Judy Scott has said that Betts, 46, remains the lone suspect in the theft from the Treasurer’s Office.
Fraud investigator Jim Brittain confirmed last month that the former cashier embezzled $617,467 in real estate excise tax payments from 2004 to May 19, 2009.
The treasurer’s office discovered a discrepancy last May and placed Betts on administrative leave. She was terminated a month later.
Betts is scheduled to make her first appearance in Clallam County Superior Court on April 23.
