Hood River County settles with former employee

According to the agreement between Van Sickle and the county, Van Sickle must return a backpay award that totals $82,942.18 — except for $2,000 that he was allowed to pay his lawyer’s $50,000 bill. It is also understood between both parties that all claims will be dismissed with prejudice.

The initial accusations that Van Sickle was siphoning money from the park’s reservation fees came from his ex-wife, Leslie Van Sickle.

Leslie’s accusations came in early 2018, just a month after the two filed for divorce. During the divorce proceedings, a judge denied Leslie’s request for sole custody of their only child and granted 50/50 custody between the parents.

“She was clearly upset about how the custody hearing went because the 50/50 custody ruling. The accusation that he (Cory Van Sickle) was stealing money came a week later,” said Van Sickle’s defense attorney at the time, Matthew Ellis — who is now the District Attorney for Wasco County.

In February 2018, the Hood River Sheriff’s Department conducted a search warrant on Van Sickle’s home and vehicle. Ellis and Van Sickle stood by and watched as the Sheriff’s Department seized a total of $21,956 in cash, but none of the marked bills from a sting operation setup by the state earlier that year. They did not arrest Van Sickle that day, and Ellis requested that Detective Noel Princehouse and then-Hood River District Attorney John Sewell notify him if and when they planned to make an arrest. Ellis heard no response from either party, and while Ellis was out of the country, Van Sickle was arrested while taking his son to school.

“There was a lot of unfortunate, poor investigating that led to these charges being filed,” said Ellis during a 2019 court hearing.

Ellis hired Jeffery Cone from Cone Consulting Group, Ltd. to do some deeper investigating into the Van Sickle financials. Cone previously worked as a certified public accountant and a forensic accountant. He was tasked with reviewing financial information from three bank accounts that had Van Sickle’s name associated with them. One account had just his name, another with he and Leslie’s name, and another with just Leslie’s name on them.

In his preliminary findings report dated Aug. 6, 2019, he found that the Public Works Department never reported or documented any suspected cash losses. In May 2015, Hood River Public Works Director Mikel Diwan and Hood River County implemented a new online reservation system for the Tollbridge County Park. Reported revenue jumped from $106,109 in 2015 to $193,724 in 2016, which led Diwan to become suspicious. According to Cone’s report, the police never followed up on Diwan’s suspicions, never requested cash or credit card fee revenue reports and never evaluated what Van Sickle’s role was in handling cash or identified other reasons cash may be disappearing.

During the four-day sting investigation set up by the state, there were reports of two envelopes with marked bills gone missing. However, there was no surveillance to see who picked up the marked bills, nor did the missing cash appear in any of Van Sickle’s bank accounts.

Cone’s report stated: “It simply does not appear reasonable to conclude that the source of unaccounted money for Van Sickle’s cash deposits came from Tollbridge cash fees.”.

When Van Sickle was indicted, Judge John Olson set the trial date for Oct. 1, 2019. At the time, Hood River District Attorney John Sewell was prosecuting the case of behalf of the State of Oregon. Sewell requested a 14-day trial, which was granted by Judge Olson. On April 11, both parties confirmed they would be prepared for trial. However, according to Judge Olson, Sewell did not send the documentation to his own forensic accountant in a timely manner, missing the deadline for submission by one day. A week before the trial was scheduled to start, Sewell requested the case be dismissed without prejudice, so the state could refile when they were ready to proceed.

Sewell then notified the court his office was not ready for trial.

During the Oct. 1 hearing, Judge Olson heard arguments from both sides and ruled to dismiss the case with prejudice ­— a decision that prevents the case from being refiled.

His decision stemmed from Sewell’s apparent failure to prepare for trial.

Sewell’s deputy DA at the time, Carrie Rasmussen, was surprised, she said, by the inadequacies in the prosecution that were brought to light by the dismissal.

“For a district attorney to make such a profound set of errors and fail to perform his duty in such a way to warrant an inexcusable neglect finding is unusual. This should serve as a warning to district attorneys throughout the state you can’t just disregard your cases,” said Rasmussen. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Judge Olson’s decision.

In March 2020, Van Sickle filed an unfair labor practice claim against Hood River County with the Employment Relations Board (ERB). The ERB then issued a final order that reinstated Van Sickle to his previous position and ordered the county to award him with backpay for the time he missed. Van Sickle resigned shortly after the ruling.

One year later in March 2021, the county filed a civil lawsuit alleging claims of conversion via wrongful taking, conversion via fraudulent appropriation and fraud against Van Sickle. In September the county paid the backpay award of $92,636.72, but simultaneously filed a Motion for Provisional Process (MPP). The purpose of the MPP was to freeze or restrain Van Sickle (or his lawyers) from accessing the Backpay Award during the pendency of the civil lawsuit. Mark Sandri represented Hood River County and said they filed for the MPP because Van Sickle planned to use the Backpay Award towards legal fees. The court granted the MPP for the remainder of the litigation in February 2022.

Hood River Circuit Judge Karen Ostrye oversaw the civil suit.