Kelley is a lieutenant colonel and lawyer in the National Guard and usually has an annual temporary assignment to South Korea.
The two-week trip didn\u2019t happen in 2015 after Kelley was indicted. Washington National Guard spokeswomen Karina Shagren said Kelley didn\u2019t go in 2016, either.
This year he\u2019s scheduled to leave Tuesday for Osan Air Base, and to return Feb. 14, according to the order U. S. District Judge Ronald Leighton signed Wednesday to approve the deployment.
Shagren said official travel orders haven\u2019t been issued yet for this year\u2019s trip, but that\u2019s not to suggest it will be canceled. Such orders usually come a few days beforehand.
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason to believe the travel won\u2019t happen,\u201d she said.
Kelley, a former state House member from Tacoma, won election to the Auditor\u2019s Office in 2012. His term ended this month, following former Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy\u2019s election to the post.
The jury in Kelley\u2019s initial trial found him not guilty in April of lying to the IRS, but it couldn\u2019t agree on a verdict for other charges. Those charges included accusations that he evaded taxes, lied under oath and stole $3 million that should have gone to homeowners as part of the real-estate services business he operated in the mid-2000s.
Prosecutors argue Kelley kept fees that should have been refunded to homeowners. He has argued he was entitled to do that in exchange for his work.
The retrial on the charges the jury couldn\u2019t decide on is scheduled for March.<\/p>\n