‘It will cause a storm.’ Elected Franklin officials investigated for criminal conspiracy

At least two Franklin County leaders are being investigated for allegedly illegally abusing their offices to cover up an investigation.

The Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office has been named as a special prosecutor to investigate whether County Commission Chairman Rocky Mullen and Auditor Matt Beaton broke the law over refusing to pay the HAPO Center’s former contractor and allegedly trying to cover up the reason why.

In a request for a search warrant for Mullen’s cell phone, Franklin County sheriff’s investigators wrote that they believed they had probable cause for official misconduct, tampering with a witness and criminal conspiracy.

The search warrant documents were filed in early February and just recently unsealed.

Both men are being looked at for the same alleged crimes, according to the sheriff’s office.

A third, unnamed official is also being investigated, according to a news release from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

The Thursday news release , from Undersheriff Monty Huber, said specific allegations against each individual will be made public once the entire investigation has been received by the special prosecutor.

Assistance from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office was also requested, according to the news release.

Prosecutor Shawn Sant told the Herald in an email this week that he requested a special prosecutor to avoid any potential conflicts, but could not share more information about the investigation.

Snohomish County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Elise Deschenes in Everett, Wash., is overseeing the investigation.

Deschenes told the Herald in an email that no charges have been forwarded at this time, and her role so far has been to offer guidance and advice on the search warrants.

Two warrants were approved, one to search the county’s data archiving service and the other for Mullen’s cell phone records. The warrants were directed at Mullen due to the use of his personal and his county-issued phone.

Mullen did not return calls by the Herald this week requesting a comment on the allegations and the investigation.

Beaton released a statement to the Herald through his attorney Scott Johnson. In the statement, Beaton maintains he was simply doing his job and insisting that the sheriff and other Franklin County officials tell the truth. Beaton believes the investigation is politically motivated.

“It is clear that certain elements of the Franklin County government have conspired in an effort to try to remove Matt from office through these baseless criminal allegations,” Johnson wrote.

“This conspiracy is based on personal grudges held by those Franklin County officials against Matt for doing his job as auditor, namely protecting Franklin County taxpayer’s money. Far from committing any criminal acts, Matt has insisted that all Franklin County officials be honest and follow the laws and regulations set out by local and state authorities,” the statement continued.

“There are good actors and bad in Franklin County government of that you can be assured. These false allegations are fueled by ego and abuse of power. When the truth and facts are exposed through the pending lawsuit and those to be filed, the public will have opportunity to decide for themselves and they will see this for what it is.”

Johnson told the Herald that they have not filed a lawsuit but are considering their legal options.

Alleged retaliation against investigator

Also, County Commissioner Clint Didier has been served with a cease and desist letter, accusing him of trying to have the wife of the lead investigator in the Mullen and Beaton case fired, according to documents obtained by the Herald.

It’s unclear if Didier is the third official referred to in the news release about the investigation.

Whitney Conner, the spouse of sheriff’s Commander Marcus Conner, has not been fired or disciplined in any way, according to the county’s attorneys.

The April 30 cease and desist letter claims Didier tried multiple times to get Whitney Conner’s boss, Larry Ziegler, and County Administrator Mike Gonzalez to fire her. Ziegler is a private attorney who contracts with the county to manage the Office of Public Defense.

“Didier has stated something to the effect of that the Sheriff’s Office or Commander Marcus Conner need to remember who is in charge,” her lawyer Daniel Thenell wrote.

“This conduct is clearly in retaliation to law enforcement activity engaged in by Cmdr. Conner and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office,” he wrote.

The county’s legal advisor forwarded the letter to the commissioners and Gonzalez, warning them not to speak with her, and telling them not to destroy any communications related to the allegations.

Official misconduct

At issue is Franklin County’s refusal to pay Simmons Venue Management for its last month of work managing the HAPO Center during the transition to the Harris White Leasure group . SVM is owned by the Simmons family, which is best known for their CG Public House restaurant and catering service.

Harris White Leasure was named the new contractor for the HAPO Center in August 2023 and the two companies worked together in the transition over the next several months as the new contract was approved and employees were hired.

The Simmons company’s invoice was for their last month of the hand off, submitted at the end of the year.

The unsealed search warrant shows that County Administrator Mike Gonzalez got the go-ahead from two of the three commissioners to approve the $12,500 payment.

However, Beaton then allegedly convinced the three commissioners to renege on the payment. And Beaton then told Harris White Leasure to make the payment anyway in order to get Gonzalez fired.

Payments from the HAPO Center go through Harris White Leasure first, then the county reimburses the company.

Gonzalez legally has the authority to approve amounts below $25,000, according to the HAPO Center contract. In this instance Harris White Leasure likely would have asked Gonzalez first to make sure the county would reimburse the expense.

It’s unclear what reason Beaton gave to justify denying the payment.

Gonzalez told investigators that he felt the county should pay the local company for its services during the transition, and two of the three commissioners seemed to be in agreement, according to court documents.

During the restructuring of HAPO Center contracts in 2023, the county made sure to give Gonzalez more oversight of operations after several questionable contracts for use of the center were approved by others in recent years.

At some point in early January 2024, Beaton allegedly learned of the Simmons company’s invoice and felt the county shouldn’t pay it.

Mullen then contacted Gonzalez to say he had changed his mind about the payment, and Gonzalez contacted the auditor’s office to place a hold on it, according to the search warrant.

Days later, Wesley Harris with Harris White Leasure contacted Gonzalez because Beaton allegedly had called him on Jan. 9 and told him to force the payment through, despite Gonzalez having already told the company the commissioners would not approve reimbursement.

Gonzalez told investigators that Harris said Beaton told him he wanted them to do this in order to “show the commissioners who (Gonzalez) really was,” said the search warrant affidavit.

Harris contacted Gonzalez on Jan. 17 worried that he didn’t want his company involved in county politics.

Gonzalez spoke with the county’s legal advisor in the prosecutor’s office the same day. Then the issue was referred to sheriff’s office investigators.

Alleged cover-up attempt

In separate interviews, investigators say Harris corroborated Gonzalez’s account of what happened and also said that Beaton somehow had obtained and called the phone number for Harris’ girlfriend, as well as his business partner Larry Leasure .

Gonzalez sent Beaton an email that “essentially told Beaton to stop trying to get him fired,” according to the search warrant affidavit.

The email prompted a back and forth, which led Mullen to order Gonzalez to attend a Jan. 22 meeting with him and Beaton.

That’s when Beaton allegedly admitted to trying to get the HAPO contractor paid against the commission’s wishes to make Gonzalez look bad, but asked Gonzalez to write a follow-up letter to the involved parties saying he had simply misunderstood the situation, according to the documents.

Gonzalez refused, saying “the retraction they were asking him to do would amount to an intentional lie and he had already reported it to law enforcement,” according to the documents.

Harris told investigators he has not had contact with Beaton otherwise, aside from a followup call in which Beaton allegedly tried to find out what Harris told Gonzalez.

The investigators noted that this followup phone call came after Beaton found out the matter was being looked at as a possible crime.

HAPO Center finances fall under Gonzalez’s responsibilities. He also is Harris White Leasure’s primary point of contact with the county.

Mullen reportedly agreed with Beaton and wanted Gonzalez to walk back his statements, according to the search warrant.

Mullen began following up with Gonzalez about the letter using both his work and personal cell phones.

He went so far as to tell Gonzalez what to say in the retraction, even after Gonzalez had told him in writing that he could not write a retraction without lying, according to the documents.

“I know how busy you are, but I really think we should get that letter out today to try to stop any further controversy/drama. Thank you,” Mullen texted Gonzalez, according to the court documents.

Gonzalez responded, saying it would amount to him lying and he wasn’t willing to do so.

Mullen then allegedly responded, “It will cause a storm, Wes (Harris) will be involved and I wouldn’t blame them if they backed out (of HAPO) because of the drama.”

He sent other texts suggesting how Gonzalez should respond.

“I would say that the issue has been resolved, and that we’re moving forward with working with each other. Leave it at that or whatever you feel is best it’s your decision,” said one text from Mullen.

Investigators obtained two sealed search warrants for Mullen’s phone records and other evidence, signed by Benton Franklin Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Stam on Feb. 1 and Feb. 7.

The search warrant was directed at Mullen’s involvement because he had used personal devices to allegedly make the possibly illegal request.

Other evidence such as emails and texts from Beaton and others were automatically kept through the county’s internal data retention programs.

“These records would be necessary to verify that the messages received by Gonzalez came from Mullen and would also establish Mullen was communicating with another public official to set up the meeting for the purposes of convincing Gonzalez to lie, thereby frustrating and obstructing an ongoing criminal investigation,” Conner wrote in the request for the search warrant.

Beaton has served as the county’s auditor since 2011. He was last reelected in 2022.

Mullen, a local businessman, has served as the District 2 commissioner since 2020 and filed for reelection on Monday.

Sheriff’s involvement

Records obtained by the Herald show that Sheriff Jim Raymond does not appear to have directed the investigation or to be directly involved.

The events in question happened just a few weeks after a blowup between the sheriff and Mullen at a county commission meeting in which Mullen accused Raymond of asking him to have an illegal meeting with Commissioner Didier.

He claimed Raymond wanted to be appointed to the county commission to fill the seat being vacated by Commissioner Brad Peck when he resigned at the end of 2023. Peck resigned after 15 years on the board, saying the county “has devolved into an arena of hyper-politization, cronyism, workplace bullying and personal acrimony.

Raymond also had been at odds with Beaton and the commissioners over audits and meal reimbursements , which led Raymond to file multiple tort claims filed against the county.

When contacted this week by the Herald, Raymond directed all questions about the Mullen and Beaton investigation to Huber.