Everett, Wash.
Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Ex-Mountlake Terrace officer charged in thefts

Prosecutors say he kept $25,000 paid by people serving sentences through home monitoring.

By Jim Haley
Herald Writer

 More than half the money the Mountlake Terrace Police Department was supposed to collect in an electronic home monitoring program never reached the city, Snoho­mish County prosecutors said Monday.

Prosecutors allege that the man who ran the program for two years siphoned off about $25,000 of the $45,000 owed to the program.

David Alaniz, 36, of Marysville, was charged Monday with five felonies in Snoho­mish County Superior Court. He is charged with misappropriation and falsification of accounts by a public officer.

Alaniz was a Mountlake Terrace custody officer and also was in charge of the police department's electronic home monitoring program. He's accused of keeping part of the fees the city charged for his own use, and allowing many participants to serve fewer days on home monitoring than ordered by the court.

The charges include allegations that Alaniz falsified receipts to make it look like clients paid in full.

Courts frequently allow people convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors to serve all or part of their time on electronic home monitoring instead of going to jail. Under Mountlake Terrace's program, participants are required to wear a tracking ankle bracelet and pay $600 a month for the monitoring.

Alaniz's responsibility was to enroll those people into the program and to monitor compliance. He also was responsible for collecting fee payments and letting the court know when participants completed their time.

The investigation, conducted by the Washington State Patrol, reviewed 77 cases of people participating in electronic home monitoring, deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro said in charging papers.

Cavagnaro said 66 of those people did not fully complete the court-ordered program -- either because they didn't serve enough time or because their fees never reached the city's finance office.

In 58 of the cases, the city did not receive full payment, Cavagnaro said. The city should have received $45,770, but only $20,925 reached the city.

In addition, the participants should have served 2,350 days in the program, but the review determined that only 1,234 days were served, she said.

One woman who was sentenced to 60 days of home monitoring allegedly paid Alaniz the $1,200 as required. Cavagnaro said $600 paid by check reached the city, but $600 paid to Alaniz in cash did not. The woman served only 46 days, according to court papers.

City officials said they will not pursue inmates whose accounts have not been fully paid to the city or require more electronic home monitoring for those who did not complete the program during Alaniz's tenure.

City officials became suspicious of Alaniz early last year and asked for the state investigation.

Alaniz was put on administrative leave in February 2007 and resigned a month later. He started a job in September as a state Department of Corrections custody officer at the Monroe Prison Complex but was fired from that post early this month, department spokesman Chad Lewis said.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.
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