LYNNWOOD — A Lynnwood Police Department deputy chief is under investigation for allegedly stealing more than $14,000 cash plus cocaine and firearms seized in criminal investigations, court documents show.
Paul C. Watkins, 50, one of the department’s two deputy chiefs, is the subject of an FBI public corruption investigation. The probe has examined Watkins’ personal finances as well as evidence-handling practices at the police department.
The investigation has documented repeated instances where cash seized by police was passed around without necessary paperwork, according to documents made public Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Federal agents have focused in particular on allegations that Watkins in 2002 took money, several grams of cocaine and two guns from the custody of Snohomish County Superior Court and never booked the items into the Lynnwood police evidence room, documents show.
Watkins said he placed the items into Lynnwood police evidence lockers but failed to follow department policy to make entries into police logbooks, said an affidavit filed by an FBI agent, Edward Quintanta Jr., in support of a search last week at Watkins’ Everett-area home.
“These items were never received by the Lynnwood Police Department’s evidence section and all efforts to locate them have been made to no avail,” the affidavit said.
The documents say Watkins also is suspected of stealing money that was supposed to be forfeited to the city of Lynnwood or returned to its original owners between October 2001 and October 2005.
Reached at his home on Wednesday evening, Watkins declined to comment. No charges have been filed.
Watkins has been placed on administrative leave and relieved of his police authority, Lynnwood police spokeswoman Shannon Sessions said Thursday. She declined to provide additional details, saying that “city officials are prohibited from discussing the ongoing criminal investigation or in-progress administrative investigation involving Watkins.”
Lynnwood city attorney Michael Ruark on Wednesday said he would not discuss the investigation “until there is some resolution by a grand jury.”
Watkins has risen through the ranks of the Lynnwood Police Department. He was the commander of the investigators division when he was promoted to deputy chief in 2005.
The state Auditor’s Office in July examined the police department’s evidence policies from 2006. No discrepancies were reported, auditor spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said.
Chambers didn’t know what procedures of evidence collection were inspected. She said her office is trying to determine why missing funds were never reported to state auditors.
The auditor’s review began about a month after FBI agents began work on the Watkins case. According to the search warrant affidavit, Lynnwood Police Chief Steven Jensen in June requested assistance from the FBI on a “public corruption matter.” Lynnwood officials had discovered money missing when police conducted their own audit of cases involving seized evidence.
Lynnwood police provided the FBI with documents, court records and statements indicating that in 2002, Watkins, while serving as the commander of the department’s criminal investigations division, may have stolen evidence from a 1996 robbery investigation, the affidavit said. Police said Watkins took $14,046, several grams of suspected cocaine and two guns, and there is no record that the items were returned.
When questioned, Watkins said he had picked up items at the Snohomish County Courthouse in Everett and put them in Lynnwood evidence lockers but didn’t make entries into the department’s logbook, a violation of department policy, according to the affidavit.
In addition, Lynnwood police noted numerous occasions when money was seized during criminal investigations and turned over to Watkins for processing, but no forms were filed to document where the cash ultimately went. According to the FBI’s affidavit, there were multiple instances found where no records exist to show the seized money was received by the police department, subject to a forfeiture hearing or returned to the owner.
The police department’s own audit found 62 transactions involving about $90,000 from October 2001 to October 2005 that specifically involved Watkins. The proper paperwork was absent in each case, the affidavit said.
Watkins has had a history of financial problems, including seeking bankruptcy protection four times between 1987 and 2004. At one point, he faced a $10,000 lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service, according to court papers.
The FBI agent said in the affidavit that a check of Watkins’ financial records showed he “made several suspicious cash deposits into his bank account” during the time period now under investigation. Among those questioned were more than $23,000 in cash deposits between 2000 and 2006.
The FBI found the cash deposits suspicious partly because Watkins’ police department check is deposited directly into his bank account, and investigators could find no other known source of income for his family that would explain the cash.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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