The former executive director of the union that represents Oregon State Police troopers and sergeants used bogus donations in the memory of a colleague killed in the Woodburn bank bombing to hide some of his personal spending, according to prosecutors and state records.

Darrin Phillips, 57, of Salem, a former senior trooper who went on to lead the union, pleaded guilty in Marion County Circuit Court last week to two counts of first-degree theft and was ordered to pay nearly $60,000 in restitution to the Oregon State Police Officers Association. Phillips was sentenced to two years of probation under the plea agreement. He was a 29-year Oregon State Police veteran.

The records show a list of purchases investigators later determined were Phillips’ personal expenses, including purchases at Sportsman’s Warehouse and expenditures on car maintenance services.

State Department of Justice records show that between 2013 and 2017, Phillips used the union credit card to give $5,800 to Blanchet Catholic School in Salem in memory of slain state police bomb technician William Hakim or to help Hakim’s son. Phillips’ son and daughter also attended the school, a Department of Justice spokesperson said.

Each expense was labeled “donation to Hakim,” according to the records.

Hakim was killed in the 2008 Woodburn bank bombing. Woodburn Police Capt. Thomas P. Tennant also died when the bomb they were dismantling at a West Coast Bank branch exploded.

But the business manager at the private high school confirmed to investigators that the school had not received any donations in Hakim’s name since 2011, the records show.

Roy Kaufmann, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said Phillips’ donation claims were “a lie” and that he instead used the money to pay for student parking, as well as two front-row tickets for graduation and to purchase a raffle ticket.

“He tried to justify the charges, but these were for his benefit, including sports fees and a high school baseball trip to Arizona,” Kaufmann wrote in an email in response to questions about the case from The Oregonian.

He said Phillips invoked the name of his slain colleague so the union’s office manager “would stop asking questions.”

The state records show that the union office manager told an investigator that Phillips explained he used the union credit card in 2015 to make a $1,900 donation to the Salem school in memory of Hakim or Hakim’s son, who attended the school.

In one memo from Phillips included in the state’s reports, he said he made a donation on Hakim’s behalf.

Jeffrey M. Jones, Phillips’ attorney, did not return messages for comment. Phillips did not return a voicemail message.

Terri Hakim said she was shocked when investigators looking into Phillips’ union activities first told her Phillips had invoked her husband’s name to hide his theft.

“I felt like OK, this is a … trooper and he used the death of a fellow trooper to fund his coffers so to speak?” Terri Hakim said. “Wow, that is a double whammy, a slap in the face” to the Oregon State Police and the union.

As part of the settlement, Phillips was required to write a letter of apology, Kaufmann said.

“I accept responsibility for my actions,” Phillips wrote in the letter, which was released by the Department of Justice. “I regret and apologize for the decisions I made” as union president.

Kaufmann said Phillips came to court with a cashier’s check for $59,019.21 in restitution. Judge Channing Bennett sentenced him to probation.

Phillips was originally indicted in 2019 on 25 criminal charges that included first-degree official misconduct, aggravated theft, identity theft and first- and second-degree theft. He was indicted again in the case in 2022.

The crimes ran from 2012 through 2018, according to the indictments.

According to the plea agreement, Phillips admitted he had used the union credit card “for his own personal benefit” between 2016 and 2018 and had failed to reimburse the organization.

Under a settlement with the Department of Justice, Phillips is not to hold employment of a financial nature and may not renew or reinstate his law enforcement certification with the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.