EVERETT — He was apprehended last year with $17,000 and the daughter he’d allegedly stolen from California as a baby in 2014.
Now, already facing trial for parental child abduction, the man is now facing a new charge: bribery.
He told arresting officers near Lynnwood in late 2017 that he had $200,000 stashed in his sofa, according to court papers filed earlier this month.
First, he allegedly offered three officers a bribe of $50,000 if they’d let him go with the girl.
One officer told him to not even go there.
Rather than heed the advice, the man reportedly upped it to $75,000.
Still, no takers. But the man was determined to make a deal. So when two of the officers left the room, he allegedly raised the stakes to the third with a promise of $217,000, in cash, no questions asked.
That didn’t work.
He later offered another officer $200,000, according to court papers.
The man, now 49, is scheduled to appear in Snohomish County Superior Court on the bribery charges Aug. 29. He was extradited to California and is out on $100,000 bail with an ankle bracelet, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
California authorities said their case is awaiting a report before a plea hearing is scheduled. The judge is considering a two-year prison term.
The man has a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction in Las Vegas for hitting the child’s mother while she was pregnant.
The child was placed into foster care, and the man has been denied any visitation since her return from Washington, officials said.
It is unknown if $200,000 was ever found in his sofa.
The man was arrested here in November after evading law enforcement for years on an arrest warrant. He was wanted in California for investigation of “child stealing” — taking away his then-1-year-old daughter from her foster family.
The girl was abducted in southern California in 2014 by her father on an unsupervised visit, according to the U.S. Marshal’s Service. He adopted another last name and sold cars on Craigslist to make money while living in south Everett, police said.
The Snohomish County Violent Offender Task Force heard the pair might have settled in Washington.
Task force investigators saw online that the father was selling an old BMW. They scheduled an appointment with him to take a look. An officer posed as a potential buyer who agreed to meet the father at a gas station. Instead of selling a BMW, the man ended up in the back seat of a patrol car.
On the way to jail, the man reported having chest pains and shortness of breath, according to the arrest report. During an evaluation at the hospital, he allegedly made the bribery offers.
He was booked into the Snohomish County Jail. In December, he signed paperwork in court agreeing not to fight extradition to California.
Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
