PORT ANGELES — A state Auditor’s Office investigative team has finished an on-site, six-week investigation into the embezzlement of at least $1,500 in real estate excise taxes from the Clallam County Treasurer’s Office.
But the Auditor’s Office, which began its investigation June 3, is several weeks away from deciding how much public money was stolen, keeping on hold, until possibly this fall, a joint criminal investigation by the Port Angeles Police Department and county Sheriff’s Office.
Then any possible charges against Catherine Betts, the former Treasurer’s Office cashier suspected of stealing the money, will be referred to the state Attorney General’s Office instead of the county Prosecutor’s Office to avoid any appearance of impropriety from one county agency investigating another, the county Prosecutor’s Office has said.
Betts has since resigned.
“We hope we can be done by the end of August, but I can’t promise anybody that,” Auditor’s Office spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said Thursday.
“These things take time.”
Chambers said the agency’s annual statewide audit of federal grants is one factor causing the investigation to take longer than it might under less busy circumstances.
She would not give an estimate of how much was stolen and did not know how much the investigation has cost so far.
“We don’t know how much money we are talking about here, and I think it would be inappropriate to estimate or speculate on any specific amount at this time,” she said.
An Auditor’s Office investigator who was the lone remaining member of a three-person team that began poring through Treasurer’s Office computer and written records June 4 left July 9.
He took with him the last of 12 boxes of detailed revenue and deposit records for 2008 and January through May 2009, Chambers said.
The Auditor’s Office said in mid-June that the investigation might be completed in mid-July.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do here,” Chambers said.
The Treasurer’s Office in 2009 will take in, tally and distribute an estimated $17.9 million in government tax revenues and individuals’ tax and fee payments.
Betts, the former $45,000-a-year Treasurer’s Office cashier suspected of doctoring books to steal real estate excise tax payments, was placed on paid administrative leave May 19, unpaid leave June 1 and resigned effective June 26, Treasurer Judy Scott said Thursday.
Her departure came about as the result of “the union agreeing to have her resign,” county Administrator Jim Jones said Thursday, saying in an interview that she was, in effect, “terminated.”
Jones said that the only money that was initially found missing after bookkeeping anomalies were discovered were real estate excise taxes, payments of which are made mostly by title companies on the sale of homes and land transactions.
The exact nature of the funds stolen has been known since the mid-May, when the theft was discovered by county staff who were investigating the missing money immediately before the state Auditor’s Office became involved, Jones said.
“That’s all we discovered,” he said, though estimating that more than $1,400 was stolen.
“We discovered a good pattern in our investigation and said, ‘Oh, Jesus, this is a big deal, bigger than the 1,400-odd-dollars she was caught with. Then we called the state auditor and asked them to take over the investigation, and they did.
“We suspect there’s more, and the state auditor also is confident that they suspect more. Now they are trying to prove it. That’s why they are following almost every real estate excise transaction.”
Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict also has said he is certain that more than $1,500 was stolen.
The theft of $1,500 or more is a felony punishable by one to 10 years in jail and a maximum $20,000 fine.
Treasurer Judy Scott would not comment on the investigation and said the agency did not tell her when it might be completed.
She said Betts’ position has been filled.
Betts did not return calls for comment Thursday.
Double-check safeguards have been added to the processing of real estate excise taxes to prevent any future theft, Scott said.
The taxes are used for major maintenance projects and capital projects.
The real estate excise tax is 1.78 percent in Clallam County, or $3,650 on a $200,000 home, except in Forks, where the tax is 1.53 percent, Scott said.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
