Bedridden thief gets house arrest after embezzling $1.4 million from Tri-Cities boss
A longtime employee of a prominent Kennewick businessman admitted to siphoning off money from his businesses to pay her bills, for shopping and to take a trip.
Janice Crawford admitted to stealing $1.4 million from Bruce Ratchford’s businesses, and trying to hide the theft by doctoring financial statements.
Despite what Lorrie Ratchford called years of deception, the bedridden 72-year-old Crawford will likely never be sent to jail because of her poor health.
Crawford worked for Bruce Ratchford, the owner of Apollo Inc., restaurants and other businesses, for more than 30 years. She was his personal assistant for at least five years, court documents said.
“He loved her like a big sister,” Lorrie Ratchford said during a recent hearing. “She fooled her friend, her family, but, most of all, Bruce, who trusted her completely.”
Crawford appeared by video from her home to plead guilty to first-degree theft and be sentenced.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Ratchford told Crawford. “You broke Bruce’s heart. ... You hurt your family, your husband and your friends.”
Normally, Crawford would have faced a maximum of three months in jail, but the aggravating factors of the amount of the theft and her abuse of a position of trust allowed for a higher sentence under Washington state sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors and her defense attorney agreed to recommend a year of house arrest if she pleaded guilty before trial.
Home monitoring
Superior Court Judge David Peterson hesitated, however, before agreeing to let her serve her sentence using electronic home monitoring devices.
“When we look at the medical information, if Ms. Crawford goes to jail, it will hasten her death. I don’t have a problem with that,” he said, noting that she made the choices that led to the sentence.
But he relented because her death in jail could lead to a lawsuit for Benton County, possibly costing taxpayers. Instead, he doubled the length of time she will spend on house arrest to two years.
He also ordered her to pay the cost of the home monitoring and warned if she doesn’t pay for it, she could be jailed.
Crawford also paid $70,000 in restitution immediately and is required to pay $1.33 million more.
“I don’t disagree with anything that Lorrie read,” Crawford said. “I regret every day the decisions that I made that hurt their family. I want to offer my sincerest apologies to Bruce, Lorrie and Ryan for the hurt and betrayal that I caused their family.”
$1.4 million embezzled
Though Crawford worked for the Ratchfords for years, court documents focused only on the period of time between 2016 and 2019.
FBI investigators found during that time she used hundreds of thousands to pay for purchases from Amazon, home security services, a personal cellphone and her cable TV bills.
She also routinely overpaid the Ratchfords’ property taxes and then had the refunds sent directly to her.
During that same three-year period, the Ratchfords had their share of personal struggles. Their historic home was one of five destroyed in a wildfire in south Kennewick, Lorrie Ratchford said during the sentencing hearing.
“Jan spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her spending was out of control,” Lorrie Ratchford said. “She did not have to steal from us. (Bruce) would have helped you.”
Discovery of betrayal
The theft came to light after Bruce Ratchford asked Crawford to transfer $3.6 million from one bank to another in April 2019.
When Bruce Ratchford realized she hadn’t shown up for work, he discovered she had submitted a resignation letter and sent a series of messages and emails to people saying she felt guilty and “had done things that others would find alarming,” court documents said. She also told people that she was going “off grid” and couldn’t be reached.
She left home when her husband was gone, leaving behind a note to him stating she had “done some bad things.” She also drained her retirement accounts and provided her husband with divorce paperwork.
Initially, the Ratchfords were worried about what had happened to their longtime employee, Lorrie Ratchford said during the sentencing hearing.
Then they started to learn about the missing money, including $2.5 million missing from the new bank account.
The discovery of the betrayal left her husband devastated, Lorrie Ratchford said. He had always prided himself on being able to read people, but this shook his confidence. It also compromised his health.
She said they are only now starting to see the real finances from their restaurants, and they know they’ll never see all of the money that was stolen.
The investigation was initially handled by the FBI but federal prosecutors decided not to prosecute Crawford because of her poor health, Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Tyler Grandgeorge said.
‘Terribly, terribly sorry’
Crawford’s attorney, Christine Bennett, said her client was “terribly, terribly sorry for her actions,” and that she continues to care about their family.
Bennett said they could have prolonged the case indefinitely because of her client’s health, but Crawford wanted to resolve the case by pleading guilty
Medical bills, restitution and incarceration costs will eat up her savings in a matter of months, Bennett said.
