Seal Beach : 2 Patrolmen Arrested in Weapons Station Thefts

Two civilian police officers at the Naval Weapons Station face charges of stealing and selling goods to an undercover federal investigator, it was reported Thursday.

The two men were allegedly negotiating to sell the undercover officer a $6,000 Navy cabin cruiser when they were arrested earlier this month. Police said other stolen items involved were typewriters, lockers and a portable gasoline-powered emergency lighting system.

Ralph Allan Barry, 35, of Anaheim and Joel Washington, 22, of Long Beach pleaded innocent at separate arraignments earlier this month before a U.S. District Court magistrate in Santa Ana. Bond was set at $10,000 for Barry and $5,000 for Washington.

According to court documents quoted in an article in a Long Beach newspaper, a Naval Weapons Station patrol car was used to escort a truck loaded with an aluminum boat from the base.

The documents quote Barry, a former lieutenant with the civilian police force, as alleging that the station’s chief of police, Robert Lowther, 60, of Seal Beach, headed the theft ring and used lumber from the station to build a vacation home in Mexico. Lowther, who has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing, has denied the charges.

Lowther was quoted in the article as saying: “If there’s any involvement, it’s him (Barry) and nobody else. They didn’t have anything on me. And if Barry did do this, he did it all on his own.”