Randy Ulmer arrested for stealing over $10,000 dollars from the police evidence locker over a period of months will probably only serve 20 days and lose his ability to work as a police officer ever again.

The 33-year-old likely will never find a job as a police officer in any other state, either, since his name will be put in a national registry of officer revocations.

Ulmer was the police department’s evidence custodian. Frasier said Ulmer took an estimated $12,000 in cash from the department’s evidence locker from May through November 2008. He has since returned $8,500 and the city estimates approximately $3,500 remains missing, Frasier added.

Frasier said he doesn’t consider Ulmer a flight risk and he is not in custody. Neither Frasier nor Ulmer’s lawyer, Nick Nylander of North Bend, gave a reason why Ulmer pleaded guilty, thus waiving his right to a trial. The court dropped a second charge of first-degree official misconduct, a class-A misdemeanor, as part of the plea bargain, Frasier said.

One reason cited for the light sentence which could have been as much as five years is that Ulmer is a ‘first time offender’. Technically this is not true given that he stole money repeatedly over a period of months or years. In truth he is a first time arrestee but he is not a first time offender.

Meanwhile the Safeway robbery is also in the news. Some of these kids may be first time offenders as well and the look outs were not armed so it will be interesting to see how their sentences compare to the sentencing of corrupt ex officer Ulmer. Ulmer should have received multiple charges for repeating thefts again and again.

Then there is Sherbondy. Like Ulmer she may never have been charged before but she may have engaged in this behavior more than once. Maybe crammed jail space and budget cuts will cause the judge to go easy on them as well.

Personally, I am disgusted that Ulmer should receive such a light sentence and not only because he conveniently couldn’t remember the difference between 3′ and 17′ in court.