4 plead guilty to conspiring with Pierce County lawyer to sneak drugs into jail

The last of four people federal prosecutors have tied to a prominent Pierce County defense attorney accused of smuggling drugs into a King County jail in tobacco cans and trial clothes pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

The attorney, John Sheeran, has pleaded not guilty to similar charges and remains out of custody on bond. He is now the only defendant in the case proceeding to trial. Prosecutors have alleged that in 2022 and 2023 he brought methamphetamine, opioids, ketamine and cannabis into the King County Correctional Facility so the drugs could be sold to inmates.

Smuggling the drugs involved a Burien convenience store worker, Katrina Cazares, who admitted earlier this year to supplying Sheeran with the controlled substances in the form of drug-soaked papers concealed in tobacco cans and the soles of shoes. Also involved were two former clients of Sheeran who were incarcerated at the facility, Darryl Peterson and Kevin Harper, who have pleaded guilty to obtaining drugs to sell from Sheeran during legal visits.

On Thursday, Michael Anthony Barquet admitted to his part in the conspiracy in U.S. District Court for Western Washington at the federal courthouse in Seattle. Barquet was not represented by Sheeran, but while he was an inmate he coordinated drug pickups between the attorney and Cazares on jail calls and video visits with Cazares using coded language. Barquet was in custody on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, an offense a jury found him guilty of in 2023.

Barquet’s defense attorney, Tim Lohfraff, told The News Tribune that the outcome was the “best of a bad situation.” He said Barquett had a horrific childhood with his father being involved in gang activity and his mother addicted to drugs. Lohraff said Barquet was shuttled around foster homes and lived on the streets.

“They picture him as this horrid human being,” Lohraff said of federal prosecutors. “He just was never given a chance.”

Barquet is to be sentenced Dec. 19, but sentencing hearings can be delayed to later dates. Peterson’s sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 12, Cazares’ sentencing is set for May 15, 2026 and Harper’s sentencing is June 5, 2026.

Attorneys for Sheeran did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Sheeran was licensed to practice law in Washington in 1996 and worked as a Pierce County prosecutor for more than two decades before he moved into private practice as a defense attorney. He helped represent former Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer in 2021 in Troyer’s false reporting case related to a confrontation with a Black newspaper carrier in Troyer’s neighborhood.

The attorney resigned from his position with Puget Law Group in Tacoma when he was indicted in October last year and he later resigned from his elected position as a West Pierce Fire commissioner.

Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, according to Lohraff, and it is one of the charges Sheeran faces. Sheeran is also charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of buprenorphine, an opioid, and illegal use of a communication facility.

Lohraff said in his client’s case, the plea agreement stipulates that prosecutors can recommend a 12-year prison term and Lohraff can argue for six years.

Although plea agreements filed in the cases of Cazares, Peterson and Harper don’t appear to include promises to testify in Sheeran’s trial, which is set for April 2026, they agreed to statements of fact that describe Sheeran’s role in secreting drugs into the jail. On Thursday, prosecutors filed an unopposed motion for a supplemental protection order prohibiting the dissemination of discovery materials regarding confidential informants and cooperating witnesses who might testify at trial.

Lohraff said he had seen the motion, and cooperating with prosecutors as a witness was not part of Barquet’s plea agreement.

Barquet pleaded guilty in two more cases Thursday, according to Lohraff, one of which was unrelated to the drug conspiracy and involved an assault on an officer at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

The other was related to another drug-smuggling conspiracy that involved a now ex-jail guard at the King County Correctional Facility, Mosses Ramos, Cazares and others. Ramos was sentenced to more than eight years in prison last year for accepting $5,000 to smuggle about a pound of meth and 100 fentanyl pills into the facility to Barquet and another inmate.

Barquet pleaded guilty to bribing Ramos to bring controlled substances into the jail and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

In Sheeran’s case, court documents state Barquet kept in contact with Cazares, who he was in a relationship with at the time, and discussed the drug-smuggling operation. A February 2023 photo included in indictment papers showed Barquet, Cazares and an inmate represented by Sheeran discussing bringing drugs in through a hidden compartment in a shoe.