Here’s what court records say about Pierce County Council candidate Josh Harris’ history
Pierce County Council candidate Josh Harris has twice been charged with theft in Pierce County, according to Superior Court records from 2008 and before.
Harris made headlines for allegedly shooting at a car theft suspect in Tacoma this week. Prosecutors haven’t decided if any charges will be filed against Harris in that matter, The News Tribune reported.
Harris also made headlines previously for paying $300,000 to bail out three Tacoma police officers involved in the death of Manuel Ellis.
Many attempts by The News Tribune to contact Harris this week have not been successful.
Superior Court records give this account of Harris’ history in Pierce County:
Prosecutors charged him with first-degree theft in 2002, accusing him of altering checks from a nightclub where he did maintenance work.
“The defendant would submit invoices to the management for purchases he had made as part of his employment, and a check would be issued to the defendant in that amount,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said. “It was discovered that on 17 separate occasions the defendant altered the amounts of the checks that were issued to substantially increase the amount of the check.”
Harris allegedly told police he didn’t believe the business paid him what it should have for his work.
“The loss to the business was over $24,000,” the probable cause document said.
The Seattle Times reported last week that Harris said in a phone interview: “I openly admitted I took the checks to pay myself back. I’m not embarrassed of it. I did no jail time. I did no prison time.”
Harris pleaded guilty to first-degree theft, a class B felony, and Judge Thomas Larkin sentenced him to 60 days, with 30 days served on electronic home monitoring and 30 days converted to 240 hours of community service, according to sentencing paperwork.
The electronic home monitoring equipment was installed July 11, 2003, and he was supposed to be finished about Aug. 14, 2003. The company got an alert Aug. 9, 2003, visited his home, learned he wasn’t there and spoke with his mother. She found his monitoring anklet in his bedroom, and the company noted the clasp was damaged “as if it had been pried open with a screw driver,” according to a report from the monitoring company that was filed with the court.
Stolen jet skis
Prosecutors charged Harris with two counts of first-degree theft again in 2008 (and later with false claims or proof and three counts of second-degree theft). In that case, charging papers accused him of reporting two jet skis stolen in January 2007. Then a deputy saw the jet skis on Fox Island in August 2008. Harris “claimed that he had in fact reported the jet skis stolen but had recovered them approximately a month or two after the thefts,” the declaration for determination of probable cause in that case said. “He claimed that he found them on his trailer, which had also been stolen, at a local business parking lot.”
Managers of businesses in the area Harris said he found the jet skis later told the officer they didn’t remember seeing jet skis in the parking lot.
“The defendant claimed that he had contacted a detective to file a recovery report but the detective was immediately called out to another incident,” the probable cause statement said.
Harris kept the jet skis, which his insurance company ended up paying him about $15,635 for, at a relative’s home on Fox Island, charging papers said.
“The officer noted that the defendant began receiving payments from Safeco well after he claimed to have found the jet skis,” the probable cause statement said. “When asked why he had not reported the recovery to Safeco, the defendant claimed that he had just been busy and ‘spaced’ it off.”
Harris ended up pleading guilty to two gross misdemeanors: attempted false claims or proof and attempted destruction, injury, secretion of property.
The Seattle Times reported last week that Harris said: “I simply forgot to call my insurance company. It was not even a mistake.” And: “I have nothing to hide about it. You make mistakes, you own them, you fix them.”
A statement from prosecutors filed with the court noted that: “Evidentiary issues exist regarding when defendant reported recovery of the items at issue. Defendant has agreed to full restitution and a sentence encompassing 30 days jail or a jail alternative in return for a reduction in charges.”
Sentencing paperwork shows Judge Katherine Stolz gave him 365 days in jail, with 335 days suspended, and 240 hours of community service in lieu of jail.
Court records show Harris, who lost his right to possess a firearm after the 2003 felony conviction, successfully petitioned the court to restore his right to possess a firearm in 2013.
That petition says he also has a conviction for first-degree possession of stolen property in 1991, second-degree possession of stolen property in 1992, and first-degree theft in 1993 – all in Pierce County Superior Court.
The petition said he’d been “in the community and crime free” for five or more years in a row since his most recent conviction.
Harris is running to represent the Gig Harbor area, Key Peninsula, Fox Island and some of north and west Tacoma in the District 7 seat.
Democrat Robyn Denson is running for the seat, currently held by Derek Young (who has reached his term limit).
Harris is one of four Republicans who filed, The News Tribune reported. Mitch Anderson, Paula Lonergan and Chuck West have also filed, according to county records.
Harris told The News Tribune last month: “Public safety is number one ... I’m not running to be an R or a D.”
The primary election is Aug. 2.
