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Earl “Joey” Gilliam, 34, pleaded guilty this morning to stealing from his father, Joe Gilliam, while the elder Gilliam lay in a vegetative state after being poisoned by an unknown person or persons in 2020. A lawyer representing the elder Gilliam pegged the amount stolen at about $350,000.
Joe Gilliam, who led the Northwest Grocery Association for nearly 20 years, was a powerful and well-known figure in Oregon politics and played a key role in Washington’s privatization of liquor sales in 2011 (his association represents grocers in Idaho, Oregon and Washington). Gilliam exerted significant influence in Salem, convincing lawmakers to radically overhaul Oregon’s Bottle Bill in 2011 by creating offsite BottleDrops that took the pressure off grocers and now account for 80% of the more than 2 billion containers returned annually. That same year, his association, bankrolled by Costco, convinced Washington voters to privatize liquor sales.
Gilliam also rallied his members to defeat Ballot Measure 97 in 2016, a rare defeat for Oregon public employee unions. When the proponents successfully revived the tax proposal in the Legislature in 2019, Gilliam made sure that grocers were exempted from what became the Student Success Act, which now raises more than $1 billion a year.
Joe Gilliam’s older brother, late state Rep. Vic Gilliam (R-Silverton), contracted ALS while a lawmaker and died of the disease in 2020. Joe Gilliam told friends and family his biggest fear was ending up in a vegetative state like Vic. He named his only son, Joey, to be his personal representative, with orders that he not be artificially kept alive, should anything happen to him.
But somebody poisoned Joe—twice—in 2020, leaving him, as he feared, unable to move, talk or feed himself. As he lay in that state, first in an Arizona hospital, then later in a long-term care facility in Washington, police charged, Joey tapped his father’s bank accounts for a variety of unauthorized personal expenditures, including travel, a new Jeep and gambling.
Related: Who Poisoned Joe Gilliam...Twice?
In August 2022, the Clackamas County District Attorney’s office charged Joey Gilliam with six counts of aggravated theft (a Class B felony) and six counts of criminal mistreatment (a Class C felony). Rather than face trial, he pleaded guilty today to four counts of aggravated theft and one count of criminal mischief.
Gilliam, who has two previous felony convictions for assault, is set for sentencing June 12. Police have never charged anyone in his father’s poisoning.