SEATTLE – An Edmonds Municipal Court judge and a Shoreline attorney pleaded guilty Friday to federal crimes for hiding thousands of dollars of illegal drug money, some of which arrived in a backpack and some in a brown paper bag.
James Lloyd White, 49, of Edmonds pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to a single count of felony money laundering. Meanwhile, A. Mark Vanderveen, 45, of Lake Forest Park pleaded guilty to failing to disclose a $20,000 cash transaction.
Both men were caught up in the federal investigation of a group that federal prosecutors say was smuggling large amounts of cocaine and marijuana across the U.S.-Canada border.
The pair are being held accountable for exercising bad judgment in accepting drug money and concealing the payment, assistant U.S. attorney Doug Whalley said.
“Common sense says if a man gives you $100,000 in a paper bag, it’s not his Boeing paycheck,” the prosecutor said.
White until Thursday had worked as a defense attorney and a part-time judge running the municipal court in Edmonds.
His face flushed red, White stood in federal court on Friday and admitted he hid in his home a backpack filled with $100,000 he knew came from a client’s drug trafficking.
White did not report receiving the money, nor did he deposit it in a bank, steps that would have attracted the attention of federal authorities, he acknowledged in an eight-page plea agreement.
Instead, White admitted he engaged in money laundering when he used $20,000 of the drug money to hire Vanderveen to represent one of the drug ring’s admitted conspirators.
In his plea, White said he gave Vanderveen $10,000 during a meeting in a parking lot, and another $10,000 that he left in a brown paper bag for Vanderveen to pick up at the Edmonds courthouse. Vanderveen worked with White at the court as a judge pro-tem.
As part of their pleas, both attorneys agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, who have been investigating what they have described in documents as “a very substantial drug-trafficking organization with active ties to Mexico and Canada.”
White’s attorney, Mark Mestel of Everett, said his client would have nothing to say after Friday’s hearing.
Vanderveen, who appeared in court a few hours before White, also declined to speak. He has been cooperating with government investigators, said his attorney, Robert Chadwell of Seattle.
Vanderveen “acknowledges that he made a mistake. He did that in court today. It is his intention to do everything he can to make it right,” the lawyer added.
In court Friday, White and Vanderveen admitted no direct involvement in the drug trafficking. Their plea agreements are predicated on continued cooperation in divulging whatever they know about the drug organization.
Magistrate Judge James Donohue told White that he must testify before a grand jury or at a criminal trial if prosecutors make such a request.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Ronald Friedman and Susan Roe on Friday filed documents alerting federal judges that the cases against White and Vanderveen are linked to the prosecutions of three other drug defendants.
“Various acts committed by Mssrs. Vanderveen and White are related to the conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana,” the prosecutors wrote.
The investigation became public in February when a bankrupt Portland, Ore., businessman, Douglas Bryan Spink, 34, was caught as he drove along U.S. 2 in Monroe with 372 pounds of cocaine stuffed in suitcases. Spink had been living in Chilliwack, B.C.
Spink had picked up the cocaine in an Everett parking lot from another member of the drug ring, Wesley Kenneth Cornett, 27, of Shoreline. Both men earlier this month pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.
On Friday, White admitted that he represented one of the drug group’s alleged leaders, Robert V. Kesling, 26, of Woodinville. White used money Kesling gave him in a backpack to secure Vanderveen as an attorney for Cornett, according to the plea agreement.
White could face up to 20 years in prison for his crime, while Vanderveen could be sentenced to up to five years. It is unlikely that either man will face punishment that severe.
The standard sentence for somebody with White’s history is two years to 21/2 years in prison. Vanderveen, meanwhile, likely faces six months or less in prison.
Under their pleas, both men agreed to cooperate fully with the Washington State Bar Association, which will conduct its own investigation.
White, a former Edmonds City Council member who in 2004 ran for a state Supreme Court position, two weeks ago met with Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson and said that he was in legal trouble and needed to resign as a municipal court judge.
White and Vanderveen made criminal errors in judgment, Friedman said.
“Both of them made mistakes in their professional capacities as attorneys,” he said. “That’s the type of mistakes that were made in this case, and they are paying a very dear price for having done so.”
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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