Cutback in Wales case is reviewed

Top FBI officials in Washington, D.C., are reviewing a decision by the Seattle office to reduce the number of agents investigating the slaying of federal prosecutor Thomas Wales, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The decision stunned agents and others in the federal law-enforcement community in Seattle, who believe that if the 2001 killing of Wales was related to his work, it was an assault on the legal system.

The prime suspect in the killing, a Bellevue airline pilot, had been targeted in a fraud case prosecuted by Wales, who worked for 18 years in the Seattle U.S. Attorney's Office.

Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office, decided to trim the number of agents on the case from four to two, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under review. A Seattle police detective also remains assigned full time to the task force.

Laughlin, who inherited the case when she joined the office 15 months ago, didn't consult the special prosecutor in the case, one source said.

Laughlin declined to be interviewed Monday.

The special prosecutor, Steven Clymer, a law professor at Cornell University and a former top federal prosecutor, has appealed to FBI headquarters, sources said. Clymer, who prosecuted the police officers convicted in the 1991 Rodney King beating case in Los Angeles, knows FBI Director Robert Mueller and high-ranking U.S. Justice Department officials who oversee the bureau.

FBI officials could let Laughlin's decision stand, order it reversed, or — most extreme — restore the full task force and place it directly under Clymer's control, sources said.

Clymer couldn't be reached for comment Monday. He was appointed because the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle had to remove itself from the case.

FBI and Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., declined comment Monday.

Laughlin's decision included the removal of lead agent Ron Bone, an FBI veteran who has devoted hundreds of hours to the investigation.

Her decision came shortly after the Seattle FBI office received an anonymous letter written by a person claiming responsibility for killing Wales. The letter was mailed from Las Vegas in January, around the time the Bellevue pilot visited that city, sources said.

The letter was written by someone claiming he was hired to kill Wales, but contained what the FBI described as misleading information meant to throw off investigators.

Agents have been trying to directly link the letter to the pilot, who could be charged with obstruction of justice if he wrote it.

Wales, 49, an assistant U.S. attorney who mostly handled white-collar crimes, was shot about 10:40 p.m. Oct. 11, 2001, while sitting at his computer in his Queen Anne home. He was hit by several shots fired from his backyard.

If killed because of his work, Wales would be the first federal prosecutor in U.S. history to be slain in the line of duty.

Mark Bartlett, first assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, declined comment on the FBI's decision but said: "My understanding in talking to members of the squad that is working the investigation is that they have a number of promising leads and they remain optimistic about solving the case."

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com