No criminal charges in rare liquor probe at Oregon alcohol agency, state report says

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Criminal charges are not warranted in the rare liquor probe that shook Oregon’s alcohol agency last year and forced its executive director to resign, state justice officials said Monday.

In February 2023, the Oregon Department of Justice began investigating whether employees of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission improperly used their positions to obtain bottles of top-shelf bourbon for personal use. The department reviewed thousands of documents and emails, and interviewed dozens of people, including current and former commission employees and liquor store agents. It concluded it did not have sufficient evidence to prove the criminal offenses it had considered — official misconduct and misuse of confidential information — beyond a reasonable doubt.

In a report released Monday, the department said that “even though the employees’ behavior may have breached ethical standards, there is no explicit policy prohibiting the specific conduct, we found no evidence of relevant training, and the practice appears to have been longstanding and endorsed by at least one executive director.”

The findings were announced in a news release from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who described the investigation as thorough and said it was “critical that Oregonians have trust in our state agencies, their leaders and employees.”