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The long-running saga of Joe Gilliam, the former longtime CEO of the Northwest Grocery Association, reached a milestone Friday when a Clackamas County circuit judge sentenced Gilliam’s son, Earl “Joey” Gilliam III, to 30 months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the older man while he lay in a vegetative state.
For more than two decades, the elder Gilliam played a major role in Oregon politics. Among other things, he shaped the way the Bottle Bill operates, shifting much of the responsibility for accepting returns from grocers to BottleDrops; pushed the successful privatization of hard liquor sales in Washington state in 2011; and, in 2016, led the successful opposition to Measure 97, a proposed billion-dollar corporate tax increase.
The elder Gilliam had planned to try and privatize the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission in 2020, when he was twice poisoned by a person or persons unknown with the toxic heavy metal thallium.
Related: Who Poisoned Joe Gilliam…Twice?
In the first half of 2021, after his father was poisoned a second time, Joey Gilliam had access to his father’s bank accounts and other assets. That’s because his father had previously granted him power of attorney should he be incapacitated. Records show that Joey Gilliam went on a spending spree with his father’s money that eventually resulted in criminal charges.
He pleaded guilty in March 2024 to four counts of aggravated theft and one count of criminal mischief.
The younger Gilliam’s sentencing came after a series of delays as prosecutors and the defense sparred over two points of disagreement: the precise amount of money Gilliam stole from his father, and whether sentencing guidelines allowed a downward departure to a sentence of probation only. Joey Gilliam’s supporters hoped for probation while prosecutors sought a sentence of 52 months in prison.
On Friday, deputy district attorney Joshua Cuttino introduced a spreadsheet built by Lake Oswego Police Detective James Peterson that showed Gilliam improperly spent more than $401,000 of his father’s money, buying two vehicles and spending heavily on travel, gambling and alcohol.
An expert for the defense, Jacob Lingo, largely agreed, saying he’d found $343,000 in improper expenditures.
Friday’s proceedings featured more of the raw family dynamics that have characterized the case. At an earlier sentencing hearing, Joey Gilliam’s half-sister, Olivia Gilliam, made a statement in court urging the judge to put her half-brother in prison, as did Joe Gilliam’s sister and guardian, Felicia Gilliam Capps.
Related: Sentencing for Earl “Joey” Gilliam Delayed Again but Family Members Make Statements
Family emotions bubbled up again today as C.J. Moyer, Joe Gilliam’s niece and caretaker at the Vancouver, Wash., facility where he is convalescing, told the court it pained her to argue in favor of her cousin’s incarceration, but she felt that he had it coming.
“This betrayal has absolutely broken my uncle’s heart,” Moyer told the court. Although Joe Gilliam still cannot speak, feed or otherwise take care of himself, Moyer has said previously she has been able to communicate with him with questions to which he can gesture in response. “My uncle has indicated that Joey going to prison is exactly what he wants,” she said today.
Joey Gilliam’s attorney, Shannon Kmetic pushed back hard on that claim, saying that Moyer and other family members were overstating their role in Joe Gilliam’s life and understating the positive relationship that Joey Gilliam had with his father. “The only one who was caring for his dad at the time of his poisoning was my client. The others had no interaction with Joe,” Kmetic told the court. She also acknowledged Joey Gilliam had a lot to answer for.
”My client was clearly out over his skis. He made significant mistakes in support of habits he had that were destructive,” Kmetic said, referrring to her client’s drinking and gambling.
Joey Gilliam’s fiancée, Anna Harvey, implored the judge to grant Gilliam probation. She said he’d cleaned up his act and gotten a diagnosis and treatment for mental health issues that contributed to his crimes. He was a “great dad” to two young daughters, one from a previous relationship. “If he goes to prison, it will change our daughters’ lives forever,” Harvey said.
After a recess to review both sides’ arguments, Judge Jones determined that sentencing rules prohibited the kind of downward departure the defense sought.
“The guidelines set forth for downward departure don’t apply,” Jones told Gilliam. “And even if they did, it wouldn’t be appropriate in this case.”
He handed down a sentence of 30 months, a restitution requirement of $372,000, and three years of post-prison supervision.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon. OJP seeks to inform, engage, and empower Oregonians with investigative and watchdog reporting that makes a significant impact at the state and local levels. Its stories appear in partner newspapers across the state. Learn more at oregonjournalismproject.org.