2 investigated in software-firm theft

Rosemary Heinen, a Bellevue woman accused with her husband of embezzling more than $3.7 million from Starbucks, is under investigation for fraud and theft stemming from her work at a Bothell software company.

Bothell police have investigated Heinen's employment at Catapult Software Training, where she worked prior to Starbucks, according to police spokesman Elmer Brown.

Brown said police conducted an extensive investigation involving "theft of a substantial amount." He declined to be more specific.

"It has to do with charging accounts on a company account and then forwarding forms for reimbursement," he said.

Brown said the case has been turned over to the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office, which declined to comment on it.

Heinen was employed at Catapult from February to June 1999 in the company's information-services division, according to a company spokeswoman. Stephan Illa, Rosemary Heinen's attorney, said he did not know the details of the Bothell police investigation. But he said he was looking into whether Rosemary Heinen suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and could not keep herself from buying goods and then hoarding them.

"I think that this is part of a consistent behavioral pattern that she's manifested for years - not the theft but the large volume of expenditures," Illa said.

Rosemary and her husband, Jerry Heinen, both 51, have been accused in a civil lawsuit of embezzling $3.7 million from Starbucks, where Rosemary Heinen worked in information systems from November 1999 until September.

The coffee giant's lawyers claim Heinen approved more than 100 payments to RAD Consulting, a company Starbucks claims is phony.

Starbucks lawyers suspect she used some of the money to buy herself expensive goods. In a police raid last month, authorities seized 28 cars, jewelry, pianos and several satellite dishes from the Heinens' home and storage sites.

No criminal charges have been filed against the Heinens. Seattle police detectives are investigating.

The Heinens also were recently named in a lawsuit that claims they wrote almost $200,000 in bad checks on several Wells Fargo bank accounts.

Joshua Robin's phone message number is 206-464-8255. His e-mail address is jrobin@seattletimes.com.