An Everett man who was granted clemency by former Gov. Jay Inslee and became a criminal justice reform advocate was indicted Thursday for allegedly running a drug trafficking organization.
The state’s clemency and pardons board unanimously commuted Percy Levy’s sentence in 2019 for a robbery and burglary conviction, and he eventually became a community outreach specialist with the Redemption Project of Washington, a partnership between the Washington Defender Association and the Seattle Clemency Project.
A grand jury indicted Levy, 54, with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, including fentanyl, and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is being held in federal detention in SeaTac.
His commutation does not mean his convictions were vacated. He was originally sentenced to 19 years in prison and served nearly 17 years.
In a statement, Magda Baker, the Washington Defender Association’s director of legal services, said “We know very little about the recent charges” against Levy and that he “is presumed innocent” until proven guilty. He is on unpaid leave, a spokesperson with the association said.
According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force had been investigating a trafficking organization involving Levy since 2023. Levy was charged along with two other men: Robert Baggett, 60, and Eugene Smith, 69.
In 2023, an undercover officer allegedly met with Baggett, who said he worked for a group that sold large quantities of cocaine, according to the complaint. The task force officer wrote that Baggett gave the officer nearly 90 grams of cocaine and later told the officer that he sold cocaine for Levy, according to the complaint.
The undercover officer bought drugs a dozen times from Baggett that tested positive for cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, according to the complaint. Prosecutors allege Baggett also sold the officer guns on Levy’s behalf.
Investigators surveilled Levy’s residence and saw Baggett with him, and prosecutors allege that Baggett drove back to Levy’s house from a meeting with the officer to pick up cocaine, according to the complaint.
In February, officers allegedly observed Smith and Levy loading duffel bags into Smith’s car. Later that day, the undercover officer met Baggett and another co-conspirator, who introduced him to Smith.
While speaking with the officer, Smith referred to Levy as his boss and as the person he was delivering drugs for, the complaint states. During another buy, Smith said someone he worked with, whom he did not name, was “on top of the world” and bought a $500,000 home he was remodeling, according to the complaint. At the same time, investigators surveilling Levy’s home allege that it appeared to be under remodeling.
The same day, investigators obtained and executed a search warrant on Levy’s house in Everett. Nobody was home, and they allegedly found two ID cards with Levy’s name and birthdate in a safe, two bricks of cocaine and two baggies of fentanyl, according to the complaint.
Under a bedroom pillow, investigators found a loaded handgun that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent determined was not manufactured in Washington, according to the complaint, so investigators determined the gun had been transported over state lines.
Levy’s 2019 commutation angered some. State Sen. Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, called the situation “frustrating” as Levy was seen as a “success story of criminal-justice reform.”
“It’s tragically ironic how that very system was used to return to a life of crime,” Goehner said in a statement. “We must hold criminals accountable. We cannot afford policies prioritizing clemency and early release over the safety of our communities.”
The commutation signed by Inslee in 2019 states Levy had no prison infractions since 2006 and his two accomplices received significantly lower prison sentences. Testimony before the board was that Levy’s criminal record was linked to his drug addiction and he had been sober for 15 years, and since then had “demonstrated tremendous personal growth.”
Levy’s sentencing judge described his sentence as “unduly harsh” and said he would have ordered a lesser sentence, according to the commutation.
In 2020, Inslee amended the commutation to waive a requirement that Levy complete a work release program before transitioning to community supervision.
Levy founded a car dealership called Redemption Auto Sale. A biography on the business’s website says Inslee’s clemency propelled “his mission to reform the criminal legal system, with a focus on sentencing reform and advocacy for those affected by the ‘war on crime.’”
In a 2023 story on the Blake decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s law criminalizing drug possession, The Daily Herald in Everett spoke with Levy. The then-53-year-old told the Herald he’d been in and out of the legal system since he was 13 and had been in prison for nearly two decades on a drug house robbery when he got clemency.
“People aren’t owed everything when they get out of a prison for committing a crime,” Levy said at the time. “But they deserve an opportunity to get out and transition without being overwhelmed, because that will lead back to what most people end up in prison for — addiction.”
