Chiropractor faces year in jail for theft

A Spokane County chiropractor with a history of drug abuse and an allegation of stalking will be sentenced today in Pend Oreille County for stealing a bank card and a checkbook from a Newport home where he was a guest.

A Superior Court jury convicted Shawn David Sweeney, 43, Tuesday of one count of second-degree theft and one count of third-degree theft – as charged.

Deputy Prosecutor Tony Koures said the thefts occurred in July 2003, while Sweeney was staying in the home of George Murphy. Sweeney was invited to a weeklong family reunion as the guest of a family member.

One of the guests saw Sweeney in Murphy’s bedroom while Murphy was away. The witness reported the incident after Murphy’s bank was overdrawn and he discovered unauthorized charges and found the bank card and checkbook missing, Koures said.

A Spokane Police officer found the bank card on Sweeney on Aug. 30, 2003, while arresting him on a drunken driving charge. The officer chased down Sweeney as he ran from the scene of a collision, Koures said in court documents.

In addition to the bank card, the officer found a pill bottle containing various medicines – including Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill. Investigators later found that Sweeney had run up about $530 worth of charges on the card, including $300 to an Internet pharmacy for Ambien, according to Koures.

A search of Sweeney’s apartment turned up Murphy’s missing checkbook and receipts matching the unauthorized charges on Murphy’s bank card.

Sweeney didn’t take the stand in his two-day trial, but defense attorney Chris Bagacaliev argued that someone else could have committed the theft.

Sweeney could get up to a year in jail when Judge Al Nielson sentences him today.

The conviction could cause Sweeney’s state license – which was conditionally restored only late last month – to be revoked a second time. Karen Kelley, a state Health Department employee assigned to the Chiropractic Quality Assurance Commission, said Wednesday she would refer the incident to an investigator.

Meanwhile, Sweeney is to be back in court on Dec. 10 for a hearing to determine whether a temporary restraining order against him should be made permanent. A Newport woman says Sweeney appears to have been stalking her.

The woman said in her restraining-order petition that she has twice spotted Sweeney walking past her house, and she fears he will break in. She believes Sweeney holds a grudge because she and her brother booted Sweeney out of their 89-year-old mother’s home in Spokane.

Sweeney was a neighbor of their mother’s, and she took him in when his landlady evicted him from his rental home about two months ago, the Newport woman said. She said she and her brother checked up on Sweeney and found he has an extensive criminal history.

Kelley said Sweeney was first licensed as a chiropractor in Washington in August 1988, and his license was revoked for five years in March 2002 because of drug convictions.

The Chiropractic Quality Assurance Commission found Sweeney had used cocaine in 1999 and 2000. The commission also noted Sweeney had two drug convictions in Grant County in 1995 and 1996, and another in Spokane County in 1996.

Sweeney’s petition to have his license conditionally reinstated was granted on Oct. 25 after he enrolled in a drug-monitoring program and satisfied other requirements.

Conditions of his probationary license include obeying all laws. He can practice only under the supervision of another chiropractor.

State records show Sweeney is employed by Karl Smith at University Chiropractic in Spokane Valley, but Smith said Sweeney was employed only one week last month.

Smith said he and Sweeney had been friends about 10 years ago, and his wife hired Sweeney to fill in for a week in the family business when she surprised Smith with a cruise trip for his 40th birthday.

“He did a good job for one week, but it doesn’t sound like he’s gotten himself straightened out,” Smith said.