Security chief accused of pocketing gifts

The manager of Olympic Security Services’ Spokane County Courthouse branch, which screens visitors, has been accused of pocketing hundreds of dollars in contributions for the family of a subordinate who died.

Olympic’s courthouse security manager Billie Wynne didn’t deliver money collected for security screener Ken Baze, who died in April 2006, until she came under police investigation last month.

One of Baze’s co-workers made the allegations Feb. 23, two days after Spokane County officials exercised their contractual right to sack Wynne because of her performance.

Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Martone filed a report of the complaint on Feb. 26 and turned it over to Spokane police for investigation. A day later, according to Martone’s follow-up report, Wynne delivered a $500 money order to the funeral home that handled Baze’s services.

Wynne couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Undersheriff Jeff Tower, citing Martone’s reports, said the employee who filed the complaint estimated $700 had been collected.

Officer Jennifer DeRuwe, a spokeswoman for city police, said Sgt. Keith Cummings dropped his investigation of Wynne because she turned over the $500 before he could get started. It would have been too difficult to prove Wynne had intended to steal the money, DeRuwe said.

“It ended up to be more of a civil issue,” to be resolved through litigation instead of criminal prosecution, DeRuwe said.

Tower said county officials weren’t aware of the donation-misappropriation allegation when they met with Olympic Security President Mark Vinson on Feb. 21 to explain their demand to “immediately replace” Wynne.

“If we’d known she was doing that kind of stuff, that’s one of the things we would have brought up,” Tower said.

Vinson was still unaware of the financial allegations when The Spokesman-Review contacted him by telephone Wednesday at the company’s Seattle-area headquarters. He said Wynne was on paid leave with Olympic Security, and a decision had not been reached on whether to transfer her to another of the company’s sites or fire her.

“It appears we will be replacing her, going in that direction, but as to anything illegal, no,” Vinson said. “There was a personality conflict, and I know that certain people started some rumors. I don’t believe them to be true.”

Efforts to reach Vinson again Friday for further comment were unsuccessful.

Wynne had been with the company since July 1996, working at the Spokane International Airport before taking charge of the 20 to 25 security screeners at several buildings on the Spokane County courthouse campus.

Tower said county officials demanded a new manager because Wynne’s employees were disgruntled and she was rude to Martone, who is the county’s liaison with Olympic Security. Also, Tower said, county officials were displeased with her insistence on having a friend of hers install a new security station.

Wynne argued with Martone when he told her that her friend couldn’t install the new equipment because he was no longer employed by the supplier, according to Tower.

“The action taken by the county was strictly with regard to the working relationship,” said county Purchasing Director Béla Kovács, who sat in on the meeting with Vinson.

Ray Vea, Olympic Security’s operations manager, was in Spokane Wednesday to “get things back in order and hire a new manager.”

He said the company planned to have Wynne’s replacement in place within two weeks.