A once-prominent Pierce County defense attorney stood in federal court Friday and admitted he kept quiet about a federal drug crime tied to the local jail system. John Sheeran, a former Pierce County prosecutor who later built a career as a defense lawyer, pleaded guilty to failing to report that buprenorphine was being possessed with intent to distribute. The move now puts him on track for possible prison time and other penalties when he is sentenced later this summer.
According to a plea agreement filed Friday, Sheeran pleaded guilty to misprision of felony, a charge used when someone knows about a felony and does not report it. He admitted he did not alert authorities about the possession with intent to distribute buprenorphine. Under the deal, he faces a potential sentence of up to three years in prison, a fine as high as $250,000, and a term of supervised release or probation. Sentencing is currently scheduled for Aug. 7, 2026. After he was indicted, Sheeran resigned from Puget Law Group and stepped down from his elected position on the West Pierce Fire District board. His attorney and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, according to The News Tribune.
What prosecutors say happened
Prosecutors say the case traces back to an alleged scheme to sneak narcotics into the King County Correctional Facility using trial clothing, drug-soaked paper and altered chewing-tobacco cans. Court filings describe how two pairs of shoes intended for inmates were found to contain about 52.6 grams of methamphetamine hidden in the soles, a discovery that helped launch a broader investigation. The Seattle Times reported on the indictment and on the sequence of pickups and deliveries that prosecutors say ran from late 2022 into spring 2023, when correctional staff intercepted the contraband, as laid out in the charging documents.
Pleas and the narrow charge
A federal grand jury indicted Sheeran in October 2024 on charges that included conspiring to distribute controlled substances and possessing and distributing methamphetamine. The plea deal, however, resolves only the misprision count. According to the agreement, Sheeran later came to suspect that the chewing-tobacco cans he received contained drugs. Instead of going to law enforcement, he kept the cans for nearly two months and then handed them back to an associate at a convenience store in Burien. The statement of facts attached to the plea also references additional allegations that are not part of the formal conviction but could still be presented to the judge when it is time for sentencing, according to The News Tribune.
How this fits with a larger jail-smuggling probe
The events described by prosecutors intersect with an earlier federal case involving a former King County jail guard who was convicted and sent to prison after admitting he took bribes to bring narcotics into the lockup. The bribery and drug-distribution allegations in that case, detailed in a Department of Justice release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, laid out how outside associates and jail staff worked together to move methamphetamine and fentanyl behind bars.
Sheeran’s guilty plea is the latest chapter in that wider jail-smuggling investigation, which has already produced multiple convictions and guilty pleas. He is set to return to federal court for sentencing on Aug. 7, 2026, when the judge will weigh the plea agreement and any additional facts prosecutors decide to put on the record.
