Pierce County attorney, elected official charged with smuggling drugs to jail inmates
West Pierce Fire commissioner and Pierce County defense attorney John M. Sheeran, 60, was arraigned Monday for allegedly smuggling drugs to clients in a King County jail, according to a Department of Justice release.
Sheeran’s charges include “conspiring to distribute controlled substances, possessing and distributing methamphetamine, distributing buprenorphine, and illegally using a communication facility,” the release says.
According to the indictment, he used his position as an attorney to give drugs, including methamphetamine, ketamine, buprenorphine and THC, to two of his clients who were then inmates at King County Correctional Facility in Seattle.
“During the conspiracy, Sheeran distributed, or possessed with an intent to distribute, sheets of paper that had been soaked in drugs, chewing tobacco cans that swapped out the tobacco with drugs, and trial clothes that had drugs concealed in the soles of the shoes,” the release said. “After Sheeran successfully smuggled the drugs into KCCF, Sheeran’s co-conspirators sold the drugs to other inmates for significant sums.”
A federal grand jury in Seattle indicted Sheeran and four others Oct. 16. He was arrested Monday without incident and appeared in federal court that day, where he pleaded not guilty and was released pending a jury trial scheduled to begin Dec. 20.
One of Sheeran’s alleged co-conspirators, inmate Michael Anthony Barquet, was involved in a prior case of bribery and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Former King County jail guard Mosses Ramos was sentenced to 102 months in prison Oct. 11 for bribery and delivering methamphetamine and fentanyl to two inmates, one of whom was Barquet, The News Tribune reported.
Sheeran served in the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for more than two decades before moving to private practice. He prosecuted numerous felonies and rose to be a chief advisor and felony division chief for elected Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, who served from 2009 to 2019.
More recently, Sheeran initially represented Sheriff Ed Troyer in 2021 in connection with charges stemming from Troyer’s confrontation with a Black newspaper carrier. Sheeran later withdrew from the case when he switched law firms, The News Tribune previously reported. Troyer ultimately was acquitted at trial.
Sheeran ran for a seat on the Pierce County District Court bench in 2018 but lost to Karl Williams. He was elected a West Pierce Fire & Rescue commissioner in 2019. His term is set to end in 2025, according to the fire district website.
The News Tribune left a voicemail and an email for Sheeran’s attorney requesting comment Tuesday evening but did not immediately hear back.
Puget Law Group managing partner Casey Arbenz told The News Tribune via phone Tuesday that Sheeran resigned from Puget Law Group.
“Nobody at Puget Law Group knew anything about any of this . . . we support John and we hope that he pled not guilty, and we trust the process will play out, and we hope that he’s vindicated,” Arbenz said.
Arbenz said that before Sheeran joined Puget Law Group, he represented some individuals who were public defense clients who were grandfathered in to the firm. Nobody else at the firm worked on those cases or had contact with those defendants, he said.
Allegations in the indictment
The indictment makes the following allegations about what happened:
“Sheeran used his status as an attorney to smuggle drugs” to two of his clients in the facility, the indictment said. He allegedly got the drugs from someone a third inmate, Barquet, knew and trusted outside the prison.
The outside source is among those indicted.
The inmates allegedly sold the drugs to others at the facility and used coded language with the outside source in phone calls from the prison to arrange the smuggling.
The indictment alleges the group agreed to do it in ways that would allow Sheeran to “plausibly deny” knowing about the drugs. For example, the drug-soaked paper could be smuggled in as legal papers.
On one call, Barquet allegedly told the outside source they could sell each paper for $4,800.
It was Dec. 5, 2022, that Sheeran met the outside source in Burien “to pick up about 17 sheets of paper soaked in methamphetamine and about two sheets of paper soaked in ketamine,” the indictment said.
Sheeran allegedly delivered those papers two days later.
Later that month, Barquet allegedly told the outside source during a video call to research how to reseal a can of chewing tobacco after putting drugs inside.
It was Jan. 3, 2023, that Sheeran met the outside source in Burien and picked up two cans of tobacco with methamphetamine inside and 12 more sheets of paper soaked in methamphetamine, the indictment said.
He allegedly delivered the paper Jan. 18, 2023, and one can Jan. 21. The outside source and Barquet later “laughed during a phone call” about how poorly the can had been resealed and that Sheeran delivered it “even though it did not appear legitimate,” the indictment said.
Sheeran allegedly delivered the second can Feb. 21, 2023.
It was also that month that the outside source showed two of the inmates a hidden compartment in a shoe on a video call and talked about using it to smuggle drugs into the facility, the indictment said.
Sheeran allegedly met the outside source in Burien and picked up two more cans of methamphetamine and two pairs of trial clothing that had about 52.6 grams of methamphetamine hidden in the shoes on March 19, 2023.
A corrections officer seized the drugs in the shoes that same day.
One of the inmates told the outside source in a phone call that Sheeran said not to talk to anyone about the drugs in the shoes, and that Sheeran would talk to the source “about the seizure later,” the indictment said.
Later one of the inmates told the source that she should say someone else gave her the shoes to give Sheeran if anyone asked.
It was April 20, 2023, during a video call, that the outside source and Barquet allegedly decided Sheeran needed to return or pay for the two tobacco cans of drugs that he hadn’t delivered.
Sheeran met the source at a convenience store in Burien on May 15, 2023, “and distributed two cans of chewing tobacco containing an unknown amount of methamphetamine, an unknown amount of THC, and an unknown number of suboxone strips,” to the source, the indictment said.
He allegedly asked her if anyone from the courthouse had contacted her.
The next day, the source wrote a message that she held up to the camera during a video call with Barquet, when the audio wasn’t working.
The photo of the message in the indictment appears to read in part: “the old man gave those 2 things back.”
Sheeran’s time as a prosecutor
The Washington State Bar Association shows Sheeran entered practice in Washington in 1996. There is no record of disciplinary action against him, bar records show. Sheeran served on the bar’s Criminal Law Section Executive Committee from 2014 to 2018, including as secretary/treasurer during 2017-19.
In a 2009 trial Sheeran prosecuted, the convictions were overturned by the Washington State Supreme Court because of his courtroom conduct, The News Tribune previously reported.
The high court wrote in that decision: “The prosecutor, in his closing arguments, denigrated defense counsel, misstated the burden of proof, expressed his personal belief as to one of the defendant’s veracity and whispered to the jury so that no one else in the courtroom could hear him.”
Addressing that case in 2018 during his run for judge, Sheeran said: “10 years ago I was involved in a trial that took much longer than it should have. I was very frustrated with the fact that justice was not being served ... and I lost my temper.”
Sheeran said then he lectured for the State Bar Association and in the Prosecutor’s Office to try to teach others about how to avoid similar mistakes.
Information from The News Tribune archives is included in this report.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misnamed Sheeran’s alleged co-conspirator involved in a court case earlier this year. The alleged co-conspirator is Michael Anthony Barquet.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 5:55 PM.
