Oregon DA suspended for 60 days for lying to investigators

The Oregon Supreme Court suspended Wasco County’s top prosecutor for 60 days after it found he repeatedly lied to investigators looking into whether he retaliated against a county official who had once rejected his sexual advances.

The ruling, issued Thursday, determined that District Attorney Eric Nisley made four false statements to the Oregon State Bar as it examined an investigation he launched into allegations of improper loans made by the official, the county’s finance director.

A trial panel with the state’s Disciplinary Board last year imposed a monthlong suspension against Nisley after it found a single instance where he hadn’t been truthful in responding to questions from the state bar.

Nisley then appealed that decision to the state’s high court, which determined the district attorney had lied even more times and doubled the length of his suspension.

“In making four false statements during the Bar’s investigation, respondent contravened expectations for lawyer conduct, as well as his obligation to the legal profession to respond truthfully during a disciplinary inquiry,” the court wrote.

Brad Timmons, an attorney for Wasco County, said Friday that Nisley should resign immediately as district attorney.

Nisley, who has served as the county’s top prosecutor since 1999, has no plans to step down.

“I read the opinion and disagree with its conclusions,” he told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “This does not define me about who I am or how I live my life.”

The case goes back to 2014 when Nisley asked the state to investigate a pair of small loans made the year before by Wasco County Finance Director Monica Morris to an intern using money from the county’s petty cash fund.

The Oregon Department of Justice determined the loans were legal. Nisley disagreed with the state’s findings and began to investigate the matter on his own.

His continued focus on the investigation prompted Timmons, the county attorney, to file a complaint with the state bar. The complaint alleged Nisley was retaliating against Morris because she had turned down a proposition for sex that Nisley made to her during a 2011 work conference in Eugene.

Morris had reported the episode to her supervisor with the county. Nisley, who had been intoxicated at the time, said he had been joking and later apologized to Morris.

Bar investigators eventually filed charges with the state’s disciplinary board, claiming Nisley’s investigation into the loans had been retaliatory and that he had lied about it to the investigators six times.

The board’s trial panel in June 2018 found no evidence that Nisley’s investigation had been improper. But it did determine that he lied when he told bar investigators that Morris was never the subject of a criminal investigation.

After its ruling, Nisley asked the state Supreme Court to review the case.

During his 60 day suspension, Nisley will not be allowed to practice law in the state of Oregon.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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