The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a district attorney did not forfeit elected office while he was temporarily suspended from practicing law. The decision checked the power of state officials to remove local prosecutors sanctioned for misconduct.
In 2017, the Oregon State Bar charged Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley with several ethics violations. Nisley was disciplined with a 60-day suspension, a punishment he spent the next three years unsuccessfully appealing.
The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley can serve out the remainder of his term in office after being suspended.
John Rosman / OPB
Just before the suspension took effect in February, the Oregon attorney general’s office advised Gov. Kate Brown to consider Nisley’s position vacant. Brown responded by empowering the Oregon Department of Justice to oversee criminal investigations in Wasco County, though she did not take the attorney general’s advice to appoint an interim replacement for Nisley.
The state remained in charge of Wasco County prosecutions for more than seven months, until this week’s Supreme Court decision. The case provided “a definitive legal ruling on whether District Attorney Nisley’s 60-day suspension from law practice resulted in a vacancy in the office,” according to a written statement from Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.
“The absence of a clear answer to that question before today’s ruling left it uncertain whether DA Nisley had the authority to make the significant decisions entrusted to district attorneys, including decisions to charge crimes. We appreciate that the court resolved that issue and clarified the meaning of the vacancy statute for possible future situations as well,” Rosenblum said in the statement.
Nisley’s lawyer argued that the state’s attempt to remove him was unprecedented. District attorneys in Oregon have been temporarily suspended before, and allowed to return to office.
Nisley won’t have long, though. He was voted out of office in May and returns to work with just three months left in his term. In January, he will be replaced by criminal defense attorney Matthew Ellis.
In a statement sent through a public relations firm, Nisley wrote that he had reached out to his elected successor to plan for the transition of power.
“I feel it is important to look past politics and work towards what is best for all the people of Wasco County and the State of Oregon,” Nisley wrote.
In 2018, a trial panel for Oregon’s Disciplinary Board ruled that Nisley lied about investigating a county official.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Oregon Attorney General.