Former Wasco County DA did not violate professional-conduct rules, Oregon State Bar ethics board concludes

Published 1:04 pm Friday, February 17, 2023

An Oregon State Bar disciplinary and ethics board concluded that a former longtime Wasco County district attorney and his former chief deputy did not violate professional conduct rules.

Eric Nisley, the county’s district attorney from 1999 to 2021, and Leslie Wolf, the former chief deputy district attorney, were the subject of an ethics complaint filed by Nisley’s successor, current Wasco County District Attorney Matthew Ellis, who defeated Nisley in a 2020 election.

The complaint said Nisley should have disclosed to the court disciplinary letters about Jeff Kienlen, a police officer for The Dalles police department, but did not. Kienlen, who was fired by the police department in 2021, served as a witness in hundreds of criminal prosecutions during his years with the department.

The Oregon Bar concluded there wasn’t enough evidence that Nisley or Wolf acted in “bad faith” by not disclosing information that might call into question Kienlen’s court testimony or the integrity of Wolf’s work.

The complaint also alleged that Wolf and Kienlen had an extramarital affair. Both denied this, saying only that they “became very close emotionally.”

Wolf is now the deputy district attorney in Hood River. From spring 2021 to June 2022, Nisley worked as a temporary deputy district attorney in Jefferson County. He’s not currently practicing law and recently moved to New Orleans with his wife.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum briefly removed Nisley from his Wasco County position in 2020 after his law license was suspended for 60 days over his conduct in a separate matter. He sued Rosenblum in a pending case that is scheduled for trial in January 2024.

In a statement released to the press last week, Nisley said he was “relieved to know that the Oregon Professional Responsibility Board concluded that Leslie Wolf and I did nothing wrong in this matter.”

He closed by taking a shot at his successor, writing that “Wasco County deserves a district attorney who understands the rules of evidence and will spend his time going after criminals, not police officers.”

Ellis told The Oregonian he was just doing his job.

“We have an ethical duty as attorneys to report what we believe to be unethical behavior by other attorneys,” he said.