The former Curry County sheriff and executive director of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association was convicted Friday of stealing from the organization and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.

John Bishop, 57, of Sublimity pleaded guilty to felony first-degree theft from the nonprofit that represents the state’s 36 elected sheriffs and lobbies the Legislature on their behalf.

The association said in a statement that it discovered “inappropriate expenditures” by Bishop during a financial review early this year. That prompted what it described as a “more detailed records examination,” which led the organization to report the matter to the Oregon Department of Justice.

Bishop was sentenced to two years of probation, 180 hours of community service and was ordered to pay the restitution to the sheriffs’ association. As part of his plea deal with the Department of Justice, his Department of Public Safety Standards and Training certification was revoked.

Julie Miller, the association’s executive assistant, gave investigators spreadsheets showing “suspicious purchases” Bishop had made using funds from the association account, according to the Department of Justice investigation. They “ranged from lunch purchases to larger items being purchased that either had missing receipts, whited out receipts, items billed to the wrong general ledger, and items that were supposedly purchased” for the association’s annual auction “that did not get auctioned off,” according to a report written by Special Agent Kimberly Hyde. One of the purchases, the report noted, was “web-based football playbook software.”

The spreadsheet included other “questionable” charges, such as Bluetooth headphones, two pairs of Apple AirPods and a wireless gaming headset for an Xbox, according to the report. Miller said Bishop told her the purchases had been auctioned at the association event, but Miller told authorities that wasn’t the case.

Bishop retired as Curry County sheriff in 2014 to run the sheriffs’ association, saying at the time that his health suffered as a result of managing the underfunded agency on the southern coast. He had served as sheriff since 2008.

According to the association’s 2017 federal tax forms, the latest available, the organization took in revenue of about $2.2 million and paid Bishop a salary of $109,805,

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

ncrombie@oregonian.com

@noellecrombie