Prominent Pierce County lawyer pleads guilty to concealing a federal drug crime
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- John Sheeran, a prominent Pierce County lawyer, was accused of smuggling drugs into jail.
- Sheeran unknowingly brought drugs into the jail but later had suspicions, record shows.
- In a plea deal, Sheeran admitted to concealing a federal crime.
A prominent Pierce County defense attorney accused of smuggling drugs into a King County jail unknowingly brought contraband into the facility but also later concealed a federal drug crime, according to statements of fact in an agreement with federal prosecutors.
In a plea bargain reached Friday, John Sheeran pleaded guilty to failing to report to authorities his knowledge of the following crime: possession with intent to distribute buprenorphine — a Schedule III controlled substance. The charge is formally called “misprision of felony.”
Sheeran faces up to three years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 7, according to records in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington.
Sheeran, 62, was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2024 on more serious charges, including conspiring to distribute controlled substances, possessing and distributing methamphetamine and distributing buprenorphine. He pleaded not guilty. Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, alone, carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
The case centered around an alleged conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the King County Correctional Facility to be sold to inmates for significant sums.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Sheeran intended to deliver trial clothes and two pairs of shoes to a client, Kevin Harper, and another inmate, Michael Barquet, in March 2023. Those shoes were seized by a correctional officer and found to have 52.6 grams of methamphetamine concealed in their soles, according to prosecutors. Sheeran had received the items from Katrina Cazares, a woman close to Barquet.
Sheeran was apparently unaware that the shoes contained drugs.
“Cazares concealed methamphetamine in the soles of each shoe and did not disclose to Defendant that the shoes contained methamphetamine,” Friday’s plea agreement said. “Cazares also unexpectedly gave Defendant two cans of chewing tobacco. Cazares did not disclose to Defendant that the tobacco cans contained any controlled substance.”
Sheeran subsequently withdrew as Harper’s counsel.
While Sheeran didn’t inspect the tobacco cans, he suspected that they might not be legitimate after drugs were located hidden in the shoes, according to the plea agreement. Even so, Sheeran didn’t report his concerns to authorities and held onto the cans for nearly two months before returning them to Cazares at a 7-Eleven in Burien.
“Defendant acted knowingly in doing so, given he was aware of a high probability that drugs were in the two tobacco cans and deliberately avoided learning the truth,” the agreement said.
After Cazares was arrested in June 2023, law enforcement located one tobacco can that contained about 19 suboxone strips, which are opioid addiction medication containing the drug buprenorphine, according to the agreement.
An attorney representing Sheeran declined to comment on the plea deal Monday. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, which prosecuted the case to avoid any appearance of conflict, also declined to comment.
The plea agreement’s statement of facts — which Sheeran’s legal counsel and the U.S. Attorney’s Office both agreed to — didn’t reference allegations that Cazares also provided Sheeran roughly 30 sheets of paper soaked in meth or ketamine that he delivered into the jail in December 2022 and January 2023.
Additional facts could be presented at the time of sentencing or in a pre-sentencing report, the plea agreement said.
Sheeran resigned from Puget Law Group in Tacoma following his indictment and soon after resigned from his elected position as a West Pierce Fire commissioner. He served in the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for more than two decades, including as a chief advisor and felony division chief for then-Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, before moving to private practice, The News Tribune previously reported.
Cazares, Harper, Barquet and Darryl Peterson, a former Sheeran client, all pleaded guilty for their roles, The News Tribune reported in September.
At his sentencing, Sheeran could also face a fine up to $250,000; supervised release for up to one year; and probation for up to five years, according to the plea agreement.
