Whatcom corrections deputy sentenced to jail time for smuggling contraband to inmate
A former Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy was sentenced to one month of jail time for smuggling items into the jail for a female inmate earlier this year.
Christopher Frederic Baetz, 42, of Blaine, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Sept. 28, in Whatcom County Superior Court to one count of second-degree introducing contraband, a felony. Baetz was sentenced the same day to one month in jail, according to court records.
Baetz is allowed to serve his sentence on electronic home monitoring, a jail alternative program, the records show.
Baetz started employment with the sheriff’s office in 2006.
Baetz was placed on administrative leave Feb. 8 — the day of his arrest. He resigned from duty April 20, before the completion of the sheriff’s office’s administrative investigation, according to Undersheriff Doug Chadwick. The investigation found that discipline was warranted and would have resulted in Baetz’s firing, Chadwick said.
Baetz had not been the subject of other complaints or internal affairs investigations, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.
An investigation determined Baetz had been smuggling items into the jail and communicating with a female inmate for months, according to previous reporting in The Bellingham Herald.
In early February, an inmate at the Whatcom County Work Center on Division Street gave a corrections deputy a letter with concerns about a female inmate. The letter said the woman had a cellphone and the situation had been occurring for months, according to court records.
Deputies searched the unit where the female inmate, who is accused of murdering a family member, was incarcerated. A bag of prescription and non-prescription medications was found during a strip-search of the woman, according to court records.
Deputies also found a cellphone, one vape pen, three phone chargers, two portable phone chargers, one electronic cigarette pen head, two Velcro sticky pads and one electronic cigarette pouch, one bottle of e-juice, two individually packaged round marijuana gummies, one e-cigarette and one pair of headphones in the woman’s bunk, the court records show.
When asked how she was getting the items, she told deputies to check the cellphone. She would not disclose who was bringing her the contraband, but said it was a deputy, according to the records.
Deputies looked through the phone and determined Baetz was the deputy bringing the contraband into the work center, the records state.
The inmate who wrote the letter about the cellphone also identified Baetz as the deputy bringing contraband to the woman. The inmate said the woman and Baetz had been passing notes to one another for several months when he was working. The inmate said Baetz would frequently call into the unit on the attorney phone at night and talk for hours with the woman, court records state.
During the sheriff’s office’s investigation, the woman told deputies she and Baetz began “a genuine friendship” and would talk about their lives, records show. Baetz and the woman then started exchanging letters that detailed their lives, kids and other things.
The woman then asked Baetz to bring her items, like the cellphone, which Baetz would give her in a brown bag at breakfast, during clothing or towel exchanges or by placing them in the shower in her unit so she could grab them, the court records state.
The woman said she and Baetz would communicate while he was both on and off duty, and that on his days off he would message her in the morning and they’d communicate throughout the day, according to court records.
The woman sent $45 to Baetz through her Paypal account so he didn’t have to pay for the items he was giving her, court records state. Baetz used the $45 to purchase healthy food from Amazon, which he would bring to the woman when they arrived, the records state.
Baetz was arrested as he arrived for work in early February and was taken into custody without incident, the records show.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Baetz’s status with the Sheriff’s Department was updated Oct. 5, 2021.
