Contractor gets year in prison for theft

Took couple's belongings, failed to register as sex offender

A former Oregon man who three years ago moved to San Juan Island to help a couple remodel their home — and took off instead with thousands of dollars of their belongings — was ordered to serve a year in prison for theft and for failing to register as a sex offender.

On April 18, Bradley Gerald Beach, 44, pleaded no contest in San Juan County Superior Court to one count of first-degree theft, a Class B felony, and to one count of failing to register, a Class C felony. He was sentenced to 366 days in prison and ordered to pay $600 in fines and fees, as well as $7,281 in restitution.

A no-contest plea, known as an Alford plea in Washington state, is not an admission of guilt. It is an admission by a defendant that if the case went to trial he or she would likely be found guilty by a jury and it serves as a conviction.

According to court documents, Beach, convicted in 1992 of first-degree sex abuse in Clackamas County, Ore., failed to register as a sex offender when, at the invitation of the Lonesome Cove neighborhood couple, he moved to the island. He reportedly worked for them in summer 1994, two years after being released from an Oregon prison.

According to court records, Beach stole more than $2,000 in scuba gear and tools from the home on Lonesome Cove while the couple was on vacation in summer 2005. He was also paid about $1,500 for remodel work he did not perform.

Beach was apprehended on a $10,000 arrest warrant issued two years ago in Clark County, where he also had failed to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in a Clark County court of failing to register and possession of a stolen weapon and sentenced in February to six months in jail.

His Clark County sentence will be served concurrently with his San Juan County sentence.

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