Franklin County embezzler moved to Walla Walla for medical care

Franklin County’s most well-known embezzler has been moved to the state’s toughest prison.

Dennis M. Huston, who stole as much as $2.8 million from Franklin County during the course of 22 years of public service, was transferred this past week to the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla after spending three years in Connell at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.

Huston’s move triggered an automatic notification from the Department of Corrections. A corrections spokesman said Huston was transferred for unspecified medical reasons.

Huston, now 69, was originally held at the prison in Connell in north Franklin County after being classified as a long-term minimum level offender. The decision to house him in the county where he committed his crime irritated some.

In 2013, Rick Miller, now chairman of the Franklin County Commission, said he’d prefer to see Huston sent to Walla Walla to ensure his sentence was as hard as possible.

Huston was accounting and administrative director in the county’s public works department, where he exploited a lack of financial controls. He created a Spokane-based company, then filed invoices for parts and services the county never received. It is considered one of the largest cases of public embezzlement in state history.

He was fired a few days after his February 2012 arrest. He later pleaded guilty to first-degree theft, money laundering and cocaine possession in Franklin County Superior Court in January 2013.

He had a prior history of embezzlement before joining Franklin County as an accountant in May 1989. Just eight months earlier, the Federal Bureau of Prisons paroled him from a conviction for stealing $142,000 while working as a financial officer in the federal Bureau of Reclamation in Montana.

He told Franklin County about his prior conviction two months after starting the job only under pressure from his probation officer. The county, thinking it had proper checks and balances in place, retained him.

The county has since adopted several software systems designed to prevent fraud. The audit department reviews invoices as well.

Huston blamed a $100-a-day cocaine habit and a gambling addiction for his actions.

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Franklin County embezzler moved to Walla Walla for medical care."