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Witness says Bonham wrong, witchhunt on Neikes

“The incident reported by Bonham never happened,” stated Jim Neikes in frustration, “It is absolutely false. I have been trying to get a hold of someone at the Daily Astorian since 11:00 am when they published their version of the story and no one will call me back.” He stated on Friday after the Daily Astorian ran a story that Neikes had been investigated by the Tillamook Sheriff’s department.

Neikes, a 49 year old local resident who has recently thrown his hat in the ring for the vacated District Three seat on the Board of County Commissioners, was the newest target of another convoluted Daily Astorian article involving an “investigation” or “probe”.

“It is interesting,” Neikes commented, “that the Tillamook Sheriff’s office never contacted me regarding this incident, no one has contacted me regarding this alleged incident. I called the County Manager, Scott Derickson, after Bonham showed up on the property to give an appraisal. I pulled up the driveway to my property and was greeted by Bonham with, something like, “Uh-oh, I better be nice to you now, in case you’re the next commissioner.” I replied something like, ‘I don’t know about that, about being appointed’ and he replied, ‘I certainly hope not!’” Neikes shook his head. “There is no call for that kind of behavior on the job. He’s welcome to his political opinion on his own time, but he doesn’t have the right to express it when he is working for the county. I shook my head and didn’t even bother replying to him but talked about appraisals. He saying people want appraisals to be real low – for tax purposes and when buying from the county and I was arguing that I just want the appraiser to do his job correctly, appraisals should be consistent with the value of the properties surrounding it. We shook hands at the end of our conversation and I left. I have a witness to the whole thing. It never happened as Bonham describes it. I never swore at him, or told him I was just f***king with him. In his version he didn’t mention how heated up he was getting.”

A Public Information Request was sent to the Tillamook County Sheriff’s office. The deputy who conducted the preliminary investigation was off duty today however the office confirmed that District Attorney Josh Marquis was “handling the case”. The result of the preliminary investigation was that there was no reason to investigate further.

According to Neikes he called Derickson after getting back to his office and left messages for him through Wednesday (Derickson had gone home early because of being ill) and was finally able to talk with Derickson on Thursday. Later on Thursday Neikes’ attorney called to tell him that the DA had asked Tillamook’s Sheriff office to look into the incident. Neikes was shocked and set up an appointment with Derickson, telling him this issue had, “gotten out of control.”

“I told Derickson that I had a witness to the whole thing standing an arm’s length away who heard it all. Scott said it was okay, the witness wasn’t necessary, this was nothing to worry about. Then Friday morning Scott called me to apologize that it had hit the paper and was being portrayed like that. I was never interviewed by anyone regarding the incident. I went to Derickson, he didn’t come looking for me, except to return my phone calls,” Neikes said.

Scott Derickson said that county employees need to feel protected while they do their jobs. He said that he cannot talk about this specific incident as it is a personnel issue, however, he does know that the County did not generate a report to an enforcement agency nor to the Daily Astorian regarding the incident as of Friday, May 16. He said that as far as he knew Bonham had taken it through the proper channels and he is unaware of how it was reported to any other agency. “It is not the county manager’s job to oversee the Sheriff’s office or to tell him how to do his job,” stated Derickson. He said he was seeing the report from the Tillamook Sheriff’s office for the first time on Friday.

“This has gone too far,” Neikes said. “I will see Bonham in court. I have a credible witness who was there for the whole incident. I am tired of letting people get away with this kind of crap. I was provoked by Bonham and I ignored it. I didn’t say the things he says I did. I didn’t block him in. If he felt threatened why did he stay and do the appraisal? The incident plain didn’t happen as he is describing it and when I go to tell my side of it to the Daily Astorian the gal answering the phone says, ‘I can’t take a statement from you.’ What? After waiting all day for someone to call me back the one person who finally does talk to me says, ‘I can’t take a statement from you.’”

Don Thornton (who was never interviewed by any law enforcement agency during the short lived “investigation”), said he witnessed the entire event between the two men and wrote the following account of the incident:

I was told about the article in the Daily Astorian on May 16, 2008 “Detective investigates Neikes” so I purchased a paper to read it for myself. Front page, above the fold, and outlined in a box was the headline. Even people that don’t buy your paper could easily catch this headline while walking by the news stand. If there was an investigation why wasn’t the eye witness questioned and how did the inquiry into the matter happen so fast and also if no criminal act was committed why did in make front page news so fast? I was there when Mr. Neikes and Mr. Bonham had their discussion and things happened different than your article painted it to be. You did report the facts according to Bonham’s statement but you left out the rest of the details.

I was working on Jim Neikes’ property on Tuesday the 13th when a car pulled into the driveway. Bonham got out of his car, did not identify himself, but said since we had a building permit he was here to reappraise the house. He said he normally doesn’t pull into a site but instead gets turned around first so he can drive straight out. We talked about how bad the driveway was and then he asked if Jim Neikes still had an interest in Big River Excavation. At this point Bonham told me he was going to measure the house but would not go inside so as not to cause any issues. It was evident Bonham knew Jim and also who the owner of the property was. By chance Jim Neikes came to the property at this point and pulled up behind Bonham’s car in the driveway. Bonham joked with Jim saying “I had better be nice to our next county commissioner”.

Bonham did get agitated when he and Jim discussed Bonham’s ability to appraise land properly but he said it was the planners fault and Jim should appeal his decisions if he wasn’t happy. At no time did Bonliam indicate he wanted to leave the property. At the end of the conversation Jim told him “Greg, it was all tongue and cheek” and Jim shook his hand and both men were smiling. Jim Neikes moved his truck off the driveway and came in the house to discuss the project with me. A few minutes later Jim left the property while Bonham was still proceeding with his appraisal of the home. Bonhamsat in his car several minutes after finishing his appraisal apparently filing out his report before leaving himself. Bonham’s exit was never blocked when he was ready to exit the property. I think this situation is a grave misunderstanding and the media coverage and or Bonham’s statement has made it out to be something it wasn’t.

I have worked for Jim Neikes for the last two years and I know a side of him that is never painted in the paper. I talk to people almost everyday that tell me they worked for him in the past and what a tough boss he was. This is almost always followed up by how he helped them when they were down. Most people in this area have no idea how generous he is when it comes to sports’ organizations and kid’s organizations or how many people he has helped start businesses. He has donated logs and equipment to the Boy Scouts for firewood sales for years and Mr. Bonham can attest to this since he is one of the Scout leaders that has taken scouts to Jim Neikes’ property to get the wood.

Why did 7 out of 10 people speak in favor of Jim at the perspective commissioner interviews? Two of them were very well respected and prominent business men and the rest were also hard working citizens of this county.

I have nothing to gain by defending Jim Neikes because I go to work everyday and provide a service he needs and he pays me accordingly. If I didn’t work for him I would be working for someone else in Clatsop County as I have for the last 28 years.

It is not a bad thing that government officials or perspective officials are under a micro scope but it is bad when witch hunts develop to discredit them or someone takes a personal agenda to this level. Is there anyone in Clatsop County that doesn’t have at least one skeleton in their closet? Please paint the whole picture next time no matter who is involved.

Don E. Thornton / Warrenton, OR

Related story: Tillamook Sheriff’s Report

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