Franklin County prosecutors have again filed charges against a bookkeeper accused of embezzling $500,000, but her defense attorney is arguing they shouldn’t be allowed to.
Brittany R. Adams, 39, of West Richland, was first charged with first-degree theft and forgery in May 2023, near the height of a shortage Franklin County public defense attorneys.
She is accused of forging her boss’ signature on 95 checks between 2017 and 2022. Most were written for $4,000 each, according to court documents.
She told investigators she needed the money because her husband’s construction business wasn’t bringing in enough and she needed to pay bills and buy food.
Since she was charged with a property crime and was out of jail pending her trial, getting assigned a public defender was not as high of a priority as other suspects in jail needing attorneys. The case lingered for nearly three months until one was available.
The Washington state and federal constitutions guarantee criminal suspects the right to an attorney if they can’t afford one. Since Adams qualified for a public defender and was not in jail, the law says she’s entitled to a trial within 90 days if she doesn’t agree to a delay.
But that can’t happen without an attorney.
Two days after the 90-day deadline of Aug. 7, 2023, an attorney was assigned to her case. He asked a judge to dismiss the charges because her speedy trial right was violated, but before a judge could hear that request, Franklin County prosecutors dropped the charges.
The charges were dismissed “without prejudice,” which allows the case to be refiled at a later date.
Six months later, prosecutors charged Adams again, leading her new defense attorney, Michael Vander Sys, to again ask a judge to throw out the case.
Court documents show that decision has yet to made. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Oct. 10.
Franklin County farm theft
Adams started working for a farm on Sagemoor Road in 2014 and was put in charge of the business account and invoices, but didn’t have the authority to sign checks.
She allegedly started fabricating extra expenses to the bank in order to hide the regular checks that she wrote to her husband.
She’s accused of entering false information in Quick Books with her husband’s name or for a random farm supply company, according to court documents.
She printed out the checks with her husband’s name on them and forged her boss’ signature, according to court documents.
Investigators said her husband was not aware of the theft and seemed surprised when police talked with him.
The scheme was uncovered by the owner’s banker, who discovered the series of checks.
The owner told police he had hired Adams’ husband just once, and he hadn’t done any other work for him since.
Adams reportedly admitted to the theft, according to court documents. She told investigators that she felt guilty every time she forged a check, and planned on paying the business back.
Lack of an attorney
Adams’ charges were filed at a time when Franklin County was struggling to contract enough attorneys for the public defender office.
During that same time, a Superior Court judge cut the bail amounts for rape and a stolen car suspects after they didn’t have defense attorneys for two months.
At the time, then public defense Manager Larry Zeigler said he was focused first on getting attorneys assigned to suspects charged with violent crimes and people in jail.
Simply not having an attorney available is not a good enough excuse, Vander Sys said in his motion.
“The state is mandated in each county to provide a sufficient number of public defense attorneys to cover assignment of each defendant’s case,” he wrote.
While defense attorneys can ask for more time to prepare before a trial, the motion has to come from the defense attorney.
He argued that the state was aware of the shortage of defense attorneys, and failed to address the issue.
“The state has created a system-wide failure of the indigent defense system of services in this county resulting in the defendant not having an attorney for over a month,” Vander Sys wrote.
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