PORT ANGELES — During her first court appearance in more than a year Tuesday, Catherine Betts admitted to pocketing $866 while she worked for the Clallam County Treasurer’s Office.
Betts — who is accused of stealing $617,467 from the Treasurer’s Office — testified during a hearing in Clallam County Superior Court that she did cash and pocket one real estate excise tax check the same day she told her supervisors that she had stolen about $1,200 in public funds.
“I took that check, and I cashed it and put the money in my pocket,” she said of the events of May 19, 2009.
Betts provided little explanation as to why she told those supervisors — Judy Scott, who was treasurer at the time, and Ann Stollard, an accountant — that she had taken more.
“I was believing that I took $1,200, but I didn’t,” she said.
Betts, who worked as a cashier for the Treasurer’s Office and now lives in Shelton, provided no explanation as to why she pocketed the $866 — a tiny fraction of the money she is accused of stealing over five years.
She allegedly stole the real estate excise tax proceeds by exchanging checks from property owners with money from the office’s cash drawer.
Those thefts occurred as early as 2004, according to a state Auditor’s Office investigation.
Betts is charged with first-degree theft, money laundering and 19 counts of filing false or fraudulent tax returns with the state Department of Revenue. Her trial is scheduled to begin July 18.
The state Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, must prove she stole at least $5,000 to get a first-degree theft conviction.
The purpose of the hearing was to determine whether Bett’s confession could be used during trial.
Her attorneys, Harry Gasnick and Loren Oakley, argued that she was coerced into confessing under threat of losing her job.
But Judge George Wood found otherwise.
He ruled that her confession can be used because she was not threatened with discipline and because questions from Stollard and Scott were essentially limited to “What happened?” and “What’s wrong?”
“It was not a coercive environment by any means,” Wood said.
Gasnick and Oakley argued that the county’s policy manual, which says employees who don’t answer questions from supervisors may be subject to discipline, was enough to create a coercive situation.
The narrative provided by Betts and her supervisors — each of whom testified Tuesday — was that she confessed May 19, 2009, on her own will to stealing money after discrepancies in her bookkeeping were discovered.
“From what I can remember, she was just talking,” Stollard recalled, when asked if Betts was pressured into confessing.
Both Stollard and Scott said Betts was acting unusual that day.
“She had been very flustered and wasn’t following the regular schedule of the day,” Stollard said.
Stollard said she tried to help Betts resolve the bookkeeping errors and that the cashier insisted the problem could be resolved at the county Auditor’s Office.
From there, they walked into the hallway of the Clallam County Courthouse, where Betts began to break down and cry.
“I messed up,” Betts said she told Stollard before saying she had stolen money.
Stollard said Betts then claimed she would kill herself and her children because she was upset that she had ruined their lives.
That Betts did not deny, but she was emphatic that she would not harm her children.
“I probably said I would commit suicide,” Betts said during the hearing.
“I want to say right now I would never hurt my kids.”
Stollard said she then urged Betts to explain what happened to Scott.
The two walked into her office, where Scott said Betts was “visibly shaken.”
She repeated what she had told Stollard and said she wanted to money to leave her husband, Scott said.
Betts wanted to leave the office, but her supervisors told her she couldn’t because they were concerned she would harm herself, they recalled.
“For her safety, I felt it was beneficial for her to stay there,” Scott said.
The former treasurer said she went to see Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones, but since he was out of the office, she took Betts to speak with Human Resources Director Marjorie Upham.
Out of concern for her well-being, they then contacted a family law attorney, Michelle Ahrens, before notifying police, Scott said.
“My concern was to secure [Betts’ safety] and get some help for her,” she said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.