Everett woman who couldn’t stop embezzling sentenced to 6 years

EVERETT — April Laughlin is addicted to stealing.

The Everett mother said she embezzled from three different employers to make people in her life happy. She tried to convince a judge Friday that she’s mended her ways and then asked to stay out of prison to raise her 9-year-old son.

Last year, Laughlin stole nearly $40,000 from a family-owned Monroe business where she worked for just four months. Before getting that job she bilked $5,100 from a Woodinville company.

She’d already been to prison for embezzling more than $200,000 from her previous employers, also small business owners.

“I don’t know why you steal. I just know you do. I’m not going to take a chance on you,” Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel said.

The judge sentenced Laughlin to six years in prison. He denied her request to remain out of custody to spend the holidays with her son, citing concerns that Laughlin wouldn’t turn herself in now that she’s facing a long stretch behind bars.

Appel also declined Laughlin’s request for a special sentencing alternative for parents. The alternative, a statute passed by the lawmakers in 2010, would have spared Laughlin prison time so she could care for her minor child.

The defense argued that Laughlin suffers from kleptomania.

“Her addiction is she steals,” defense attorney William Fligeltaub said. “That is an addiction.”

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter opposed an alternative sentence, saying that Laughlin was “using (her) child as a shield.”

She may have tried to improve herself over the past year, but there are consequences for her crimes, he said.

Appel agreed with Hunter, saying the legislature never intended the statute to be a get-out-of-jail-free pass for repeat offenders.

“Madam, you’ve given me no reason to believe that you won’t steal from a fourth victim,” Appel said.

Laughlin, 36, apologized Friday. She told the judge she’s been undergoing counseling with a therapist for more than a year. She’s also been working for Pioneer Humans Services, a nonprofit that offers services and employment to those with criminal histories.

“I do owe a lot of money. I will pay every penny back,” she said.

Laughlin already owes more than $300,000 to an Everett couple who hired her in 2006 as an office manager for their small business. Laughlin forged more than 100 checks and used the company credit card for personal purchases. The owners told a judge back in 2010 that they never suspected that Laughlin would steal from them.

Laughlin tried to avoid prison then, too. She said she needed a kidney transplant. She was sentenced to two years in prison for first-degree theft. She was out after a year.

Laughlin was hired in 2013 by Advanced Lean Manufacturing, a small Woodinville company. She was there for only three months when the owner discovered that Laughlin had forged checks, totaling about $5,100. She was fired and warned that if she returned to the business, she’d be arrested for trespassing.

Two months later she started working for Wet Noses Natural Dog Treat Company in Monroe. A vendor complained about not being paid and the owners discovered that Laughlin had forged seven checks, totaling $37,878.

Laughlin pleaded guilty in August to multiple counts of identity theft and forgery in the Monroe case.

She also pleaded guilty in King County to multiple counts of second-degree theft. Laughlin faces additional time in prison for the Woodinville case.

Appel ordered her to pay back the Monroe business owners, warning her that if she didn’t try hard enough to make good on her promise, he’d lock her up for that, too.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.