Economic Crimes Unit - Early Plea Negotiators

Find out more about the early plea processes and contacts in Seattle for the Economic Crimes Unit of the Prosecuting Attorney's Office (PAO).

Economic crimes include:

Forgery
Identity Theft
Theft 1 and 2
Possession of Stolen Property (PSP) 1 and 2
Trafficking 1 and 3
Unlawful Issuance of a Bank Check (UIBC)
(Failure to Return (FTR) and Theft of Rental Property
Money Laundering
Gambling
Insurance Fraud
Mortgage Fraud
Voter Fraud
Cheating
Complex Financial Crimes
Residential Burglary
Burglary 2
Possession of a Stolen Vehicle
Theft of a Motor Vehicle

We will negotiate by email. Negotiations will continue throughout the pendency of the case, but the defense should expect that the State’s best offer will be made at the early plea stage. If the defense requests discovery beyond what is normally expected during the early plea negotiation period (such as requests to arrange victim or witness interviews or motion for such interviews, redacted discovery, records that are not in the possession of the State, lab testing, and so on) then the case must be assigned to a trial deputy and any outstanding early plea offer is withdrawn.

Early plea offers will not be kept open for an extended period of time. Further, the State reserves the right to revoke an early plea offer in other circumstances, such as new information or evidence, the defendant’s commission of new crimes, a failure to appear, violations of conditions of release, any evidence of inappropriate communication/contact with victims or witnesses.

The State will strive to provide predictability and notice to the defense of any revocation. Many cases in ECU are pre-assigned to Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys (DPAs). Early plea negotiations for such cases should be conducted with the assigned trial DPA.

Learn more about the Early Plea Negotiation Process