First a sex sting, now an embezzling charge

A longtime King County employee who was first charged in an Internet sex sting is now accused of swiping more than $72,000 from Prosecutor Norm Maleng's election campaign.

Larry Corrigan admitted embezzling the money when asked to turn over campaign records after his arrest last week on an attempted child-molestation charge, according to Maleng's campaign.

Campaign officials hired an investigator to look over the books and have now notified the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office, which is handling the child-molestation charge.

Corrigan's lawyer, John Wolfe, confirmed that Corrigan acknowledged taking the money and "has since repaid the misappropriated funds and cooperated with -- and will continue to cooperate with -- the campaign."

Though Corrigan, 54, also worked on other campaigns -- including two for then-King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, who is now a congressman -- there is no indication that he took money from them.

Maleng's campaign treasurer, Mike McKay, said Corrigan did not have check-writing authority in any campaigns other than Maleng's.

Reichert's spokeswoman, Kimberly Cadena, said no one in Reichert's 1997 or 2001 campaigns had the authority to write checks without a second signature.

"As far as we know, (Corrigan) was never in the position, in the King County sheriff's campaign, to embezzle funds," she said.

Corrigan also worked on the campaign of King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu, who reviewed her campaign records this week and found "no impropriety at all," said her campaign treasurer, Kellye Testy.

Corrigan filed finance reports for Mark Sidran's 2001 mayoral campaign but did not have access to the money, said Sidran's executive assistant, Nancy Moen.

Joan Cavagnaro, Snohomish County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor, who is prosecuting Corrigan on the child-molestation charge, said she would wait until the embezzlement allegations are investigated and referred to her for possible charges.

Maleng and his wife, Judy, are longtime friends of Corrigan's and were saddened and shocked by the allegations, said Maleng's spokesman, Dan Donohoe.

Corrigan was arrested last week and accused of arranging to meet someone he met on the Internet and thought was a 13-year-old girl for a sexual tryst. The girl turned out to be an undercover Seattle police detective.

He will be arraigned on that charge Monday in King County Superior Court.

This week, McKay wrote a letter to Snohomish County prosecutors explaining the new allegations. He said he'd requested that Corrigan stop all bookkeeping duties on Maleng's campaign and turn over all records.

"At that time, he revealed that he had, over a period from May 2004 until early 2005, misappropriated more than $72,000 in campaign funds," he wrote.

Corrigan returned about $10,000 last January, and he and his siblings paid back roughly $67,500 -- the amount Maleng's campaign account appeared to be short -- this week, McKay said.

Corrigan handled budget and finance matters for Maleng's office from 1979 to early last year.

His most recent duties included negotiating leases for office space and equipment.