IAPE Evidence Blog

A for­mer Sheriff’s evi­dence tech­ni­cian received a three-year prison sen­tence for steal­ing $8,644 on the job.

Staci Alli­son, 41, showed no emo­tion when taken into cus­tody after her sen­tenc­ing hear­ing to serve 36 months in prison.

Alli­son was charged with theft and money laun­der­ing in May 2009, six months after 129 empty evi­dence bags that once con­tained $51,251 were found stuffed in a plas­tic tube in the Sheriff’s Office evi­dence room where she worked.

Assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­eral Scott Mar­low pros­e­cuted the case, prov­ing to the six women and six men on the jury Alli­son stole more than $8,000 by remov­ing it from evi­dence envelopes inside evi­dence bags and delet­ing the com­puter records. She is sus­pected of steal­ing the larger amount, but Mar­low charged her based on what he thought he could prove.

Allison’s defense attor­ney, Ralph Ander­son, argued the dele­tions were made as a test of the sys­tem and the evi­dence room was a mess and poorly man­aged, mak­ing it easy for any­one to steal from it.

Dur­ing the trial, Alli­son tes­ti­fied she didn’t know who stole the money and she con­tin­ues to main­tain her innocence.

Ander­son filed a notice of appeal in Clal­lam County Supe­rior Court on Dec. 15 dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing hearing.

Before Clal­lam County Supe­rior Court Judge Ken Williams sen­tenced Alli­son to three years in prison, Ander­son argued for a first-time offender waiver and 90 days in jail with 30 days con­verted to com­mu­nity ser­vice and the rest served on elec­tronic home monitoring.

“Staci was a good, hard worker,” he said, adding she has no prior crim­i­nal his­tory, appeared for all court hear­ings and com­plied with all the court’s direc­tions. He said she has med­ical prob­lems and listed nearly a dozen med­ica­tions she takes for them.

“This is not a per­son who would ben­e­fit from prison,” he said. 

Mar­low said Alli­son was con­victed of a major eco­nomic offense and because of that an excep­tional sen­tence is warranted.

“She vio­lated that (trust), jeop­ar­dized all the cases, stole money from envelopes and spent it on her­self,” he said.

He requested a 36-month sen­tence and $51,905.33 in restitution.

After Williams ordered the 36-month sen­tence, to decide on resti­tu­tion later, Ander­son made a motion to stay Allison’s sen­tence pend­ing her appeal.

In the alter­na­tive, he asked she be given a week to pre­pare to go to prison.

Mar­low objected, stat­ing he doesn’t believe it was appro­pri­ate and it could under­mine the public’s view of the jus­tice system.

“When peo­ple are sen­tenced, they go to prison,” he said.

Williams said he was not con­vinced there were valid rea­sons to stay Allison’s sen­tence but told Ander­son he could file a writ­ten motion.

Alli­son was taken into cus­tody by the Clal­lam County Sheriff’s Office to be turned over to the Depart­ment of Corrections.

Ander­son said he intends to file a writ­ten motion request­ing Alli­son not be impris­oned pend­ing her appeal.

Reach Amanda Win­ters at awinters@sequimgazette.com. 

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org