On April 17 the King County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges of theft, domestic violence, and forgery against Michael John Rule and Andrew Stack Rule, the two sons of famed writer Ann Rule. Much like something out of one of the world renowned author’s own stories, the two sons are accused of abusing and stealing from their wealthy mother for years.
According to the charging documents the allegations were brought forward by Ann Rule’s son-in-law, Glenn Scott, on March 2 through an email to the Prosecutor’s office. These suspicions were then handled in a joint investigation by the Inspector General’s office, the King County Sheriff’s Office and Normandy Park PD. After interviewing Rule, her family, caretakers, friends, and combing through financial documents ample evidence was found against the two sons.

The trouble with Andrew

For years Ann Rule, now 83, has paid a combined monthly salary to her four children of $25K through her company Rule Enterprises, LLC. Michael was often paid the highest portion between the four since he acted as a daily caregiver to Rule while living next door to her.
In 2013 Rule suffered a broken hip after falling down and has since been dependent on a daily caregiver. She is currently confined to a wheelchair and requires the use of an oxygen tank. It is around this time that the abuse began.
On top of the monthly salary that Andrew Rule was being given by his mother he also had his rent, car insurance, and health insurance covered in addition to that amount. Despite this Andrew always seemed to be coming back to Rule for more money, whether it be for a wedding, new clothes, car repairs, or even buying a racehorse.
“Sometimes threatening suicide, sometimes trying to make her feel guilty, sometimes screaming obscenities at her,” describe the charging documents of his coercion tactics.
Rule became frightened of her son and often suffered severe stress on top of her degrading medical condition from his attacks.
Last fall Michael and his sister Leslie began looking into means of getting a protection order for Rule against their brother Andrew. During these discussions Michael outlined the need for proper terminology to use when explaining the situation to the authorities in order to obtain the order, including referring to Rule as a “vulnerable adult”.
The harassment and threats continued from Andrew, at which point Rule filed for a protection order in January and was granted one in February. Andrew continued to violate this order and was arrested on March 27.
While being interviewed following his arrest Andrew admitted to suffering from addictions to drugs and gambling and admitted that most of the money his mother had given him went to gambling and strip clubs. He also admitted to using $12K to gamble on race horses just last January. He won around $9K.
Andrew also openly admitted to authorities that he would harass his mother for money and often lied to her about what he actually needed it for.

The one in the dark

The main source of income for Michael for years has been the money that he is given by his mother. Living next door to her with his wife Marie his daily tasks included grabbing her mail, buying her groceries, and performing general daily errands. For this work and combined with his wife’s salary they received $9K a month.
Last summer as her health was fading Rule named Donna Anders, her bookkeeper, as her acting attorney with Michael as the second choice to takeover should Anders not be able to carry out her duties. Almost immediately Anders came under heavy pressure from Michael to give up her position and allow him to take over.
Taking over her credit cards and controlling her finances Michael also demanded that Rule provide him with a copy of her will so he could figure out how much of an inheritance he would receive when she died.
Anders, along with caregivers and friends of Rule, began to suspect that Michael was spending her money freely. Bank statements would either be given with pages missing or mysteriously disappear while Michael had control. Rule’s bank accounts began to be overdrawn on a regular basis.
After working diligently to get a protection order for his mother against his brother, Michael began engaging in the same frightening abuse as Andrew to bilk money from her. It is noted that he would often scream and smash things against the wall when demanding that Rule give him more money. One description from the charging documents that has become notorious reads “he would yell at his mother demanding money as she cowered in her wheelchair”. In an interview with police Rule herself described Michael as having fits of rage and that his behavior had driven one of her caretaker’s to quit.
Last February one of Rule’s caretakers assisted her in downloading a banking app onto her cell phone. While checking her account she herself realized that Michael had forged numerous checks, nearing an amount of $50K, while handling her finances. She also saw for herself the extent of her overdrawn bank accounts.
During the investigation nearly 100 checks were confirmed to bare forged signatures by Michael. It is unclear how many of these checks may have actually been used for legitimate business expenses.
Search warrants were executed on the homes of Michael and Andrew on April 15. Credit cards, debit cards, and checks were found in Ann Rule’s name at Michael’s home along with extensive financial records. It is believed that more money will be discovered to have been stolen by the end of the investigation.
According to Dan Donohoe of the King County Prosecutor’s Office the maximum sentence for both as charged is 90 days, however both could face longer terms considering the “vulnerable victim aggregators” in the cases.