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February 7th, 2006

JURY CONVICTS DEAN AND MULLEN IN THEFT CASE

SKAGIT COUNTY – A Skagit County jury convicted Kevin Dean and Lisa Mullen, former employees of Frontier Ford of Anacortes, of all charges filed against them yesterday, in Skagit County Superior Court. After deliberating for six hours, the jury delivered a guilty verdict including First Degree Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Theft and Criminal Profiteering. According to accounting evidence at the trial, the two defendants took more than $1.2 million from the dealership over a six-year time frame. Dean was general manager of the dealership and Mullen was comptroller and office manager.

“This is the culmination, literally of years of work, and a dedication by a group of people in the prosecutor’s office who had an acute sense of justice, and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get this case to trial to present it to the jury in a competent manner,” said Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Seguine.

Both Dean and Mullen were convicted of charges of First Degree Theft and Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Theft. Mullen was also convicted of Operating an Enterprise Through a Pattern of Criminal Profiteering. Within that charge, prosecutors alleged that she committed approximately 25 separate felony acts, including multiple individual charges of First Degree Theft, Money Laundering, and Trafficking in Stolen Property in the First Degree. The jury found her guilty of each individual charge within the Criminal Profiteering Charge.

The maximum penalty for both defendants is the statutory maximum of ten years, according to Seguine. The State will be entitled to seek a restitution order for the victim, as well as all costs incurred by the State in investigating and prosecuting the case.

The defendants remain released on bail posted before the trial. Sentencing is tentatively set for March 22, 2006, according to Seguine.