Whistleblower complaint claims perjury by Kallinen

GOLDENDALE — Robert Yoesle, former Goldendale Observatory State Park volunteer and past president of the Friends of Goldendale Observatory, filed a formal administrative complaint Oct. 8 with the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. The complaint claims misconduct, deceptive and defamatory public statements, and perjured court testimony by Washington State Parks Ranger and Klickitat County Commissioner candidate Andy Kallinen.

Yoesle’s complaint states that during a 2018 small claims trial, Kallinen took the witness stand under oath and swore that Yoesle had submitted an excessive and unjustified $825 travel reimbursement for a 2013 telescope acquisition. However, when pressed under cross-examination, Yoesle’s complaint asserts, Kallinen stated he had never actually seen, reviewed, or handled Yoesle’s travel documents or receipts.

After Yoesle cited this alleged contradiction in a Sept. 23 letter to the editor in The Sentinel, Kallinen offered a rebuttal in a Sept. 30 letter in which he stated he did review Yoesle’s submissions and refused to authorize them, contradicting his trial testimony, according to Yoesle. Yoesle’s complaint asserts that Kallinen then fabricated claims that Yoesle bypassed him through alleged coercion of higher ups and forced Washington State Parks regional management to capitulate to an improper payment.

Yoesle’s complaint included documentation he says proves his claims.

“By twisting his story between a courtroom witness stand and political press to cover up his initial false testimony, Kallinen’s shifting statements expose a clear pattern of untruthfulness unbefitting of both a public law enforcement ranger and a candidate for county commissioner who claims to be ‘the one to trust,’” Yoesle stated.

In response to Yoesle’s complaint, Kallinen wrote in an email, “My recollection of how it came up in testimony almost nine years ago was mistaken. In my response to [Yoesle’s] smear, I presumed since he brought it up in his letter to the editor that it was he who brought it up in the civil suit almost nine years ago. He can claim I testified in uniform; he may have seen me in the courthouse in uniform and conflated it in his memory. I don’t know. I’m periodically there to speak to staff in the prosecutor’s office and the sheriff’s office as well as dropping off tickets at the court on occasion. I asked if the court had video of the proceedings. They said they did not. He lost the lawsuit.”

Kallinen acknowledged the telescope in question was a good deal for the observatory. “That’s why I agreed to the trip for the amount we had agreed to. Whether I saw the form he submitted or was told how much he was submitting via communication with Troy [Carpenter] and/or Lem [a Washington State Parks employee], I couldn’t say at this juncture nearly 13 years after the events discussed in a lawsuit that occurred nine years ago. Why nine years later when I’m running for office? Revenge?

“That my memory of statements made nine years ago was flawed about who brought up a 2013 disagreement over the amount of a travel claim is not surprising but bears zero intent of deceit. That is the sum total of his complaint. It’s sad.”