A Rare Conviction In Washington State

While such cases are rare, Tom DiBartolo isn’t the first Washington state law enforcement officer to be convicted of murder.

Last summer, a Seattle jury convicted King County police Sgt. Mathias Bachmeier of aggravated murder for killing James Bradley Wrenn, and then trying to frame him for the arson of Bachmeier’s Renton home.

Prosecutors said Bachmeier, a 25-year police veteran, set the fire to collect insurance money.

Bachmeier will be sentenced in January to a mandatory life prison term unless defense attorneys win a new trial.

Before Bachmeier, the most recent example of a killer cop in Washington appears to predate World War II, a records check shows.

In 1938, Seattle police officer Gordon Jensen was convicted of killing his wife during an argument.

Jensen admitted shooting her with his service revolver during a drunken quarrel.

The state Department of Corrections does not compile statistics on law enforcement officers convicted of crimes.

“We certainly don’t go looking for that statistic,” said a spokesman for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser, who prosecuted DiBartolo, said: “It’s not kept track of, probably, because it’s so rare.”

, DataTimes