Clatsop County has settled with two former employees from the district attorney’s office for more than $114,000 amid an ongoing investigation into workplace conduct issues.

The county confirmed the settlements had happened, but declined to comment on them or on any aspects of the investigation.

In the settlement documents, the county does not mention the investigation or list any reason for the agreements beyond marking the end of the women’s employment with the county. Instead the documents refer to the money paid to the women as severance pay, broken up across three categories: for alleged economic damages, for alleged noneconomic damages, and for alleged attorney fees.

But the former trial assistants named in the agreements, Kaelee Kinney and Krysta Criss, told KMUN they left their jobs after witnessing and experiencing bullying, harassment and invasion of privacy — working in a hostile atmosphere that eventually took a toll on them mentally and physically.

Both left the district attorney’s office this summer on medical leave related to what they were experiencing at their jobs.

In June, the county launched a workplace investigation into issues at the district attorney’s office. Two employees were placed on paid administrative leave. By then, a number of staff members were out on various types of other leave and one attorney had left to take a new job. The short-staffed office struggled to keep up with important tasks like providing key documents and reports to defense attorneys.

At a Clatsop County Board of Commissioners’ meeting in July, Kinney told the commissioners about the far-reaching impacts of a dysfunctional district attorney’s office. Behind her, four current and former district attorney’s office employees stood in solidarity.

In August, Kinney and Criss filed a tort claim notice against the county. By the end of September, the county had negotiated the settlement and separation agreements with the women’s lawyer.

Criss and Kinney said they decided to quit and not return to the office because of the impacts on their health. They also feared retaliation from co-workers if they returned. But they said it’s a situation that didn’t need to happen at all and that the settlements are expenses the county could have avoided.

Former employees KMUN spoke with and others familiar with operations at the district attorney’s office echoed Kinney and Criss’s claims of a hostile work environment. They said the county has heard about issues in that office for years.

Kinney and Criss had filed complaints of their own. Those didn’t go anywhere either until earlier this year, when Kinney filed a records request for inter-office messages sent between her co-workers over the communication platform Slack.

The pages of Slack messages that came back provided tangible proof of the behavior they were experiencing in the office, Kinney said. Soon after she presented the messages to county administrators, the county launched its investigation, which is now being handled by an outside group.

In messages reviewed by KMUN, the two female co-workers mentioned in Criss and Kinney’s tort claim notice and other co-workers describe other women in the office using sexist slurs. They comment about co-workers’ medical conditions and discuss or speculate about other private information.

When Criss decided to read the messages, she thought she knew what to expect given daily experiences in the office. What she discovered was that one of her colleagues had used their credentials to look up details tied to a civil restraining order Criss had filed against her ex-husband. The colleague then gossiped about it over Slack with another colleague, complaining about Criss’ bad attitude that day.

For Criss, it was devastating.

“If my ex-husband were to come out here now and do something, do you know how hard it would be for me to file a restraining order, knowing that people who are employed in that office would look into it and gossip about it?” Criss said. “I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel safe in any sense of the word.”

At the Clatsop County District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Ron Brown oversees a staff of 20 people. He was elected to his position in 2018, following the retirement of Josh Marquis, who held the post for 24 years. Brown ran unopposed and won a second four-year term in 2022.

But under Brown, others oversee different aspects of the office. Criss and Kinney described lack of oversight from their direct supervisor, a woman, and said that Brown was a benign but distant presence.

Kinney had worked for the county since 2022. She started at the sheriff’s office. After the birth of her second child, she was looking for something part-time but wanted to stay with the county. The district attorney’s office had an opening and she applied. She said people warned her about taking the job. They told her the office was hostile and toxic.

She took the job anyway.

When she was working part time, Kinney said she didn’t notice much to alarm her at first.

But then a full-time trial assistant position opened up. She felt ready to take on more work and got the job.

Almost immediately, she said, she started to experience what people had warned her about: whispers behind her back, co-workers monitoring her, negative comments, small moments that started to pile up. She said she saw how people were singled out and targeted.

Criss took a job at the Clatsop County District Attorney’s Office in 2019 after previously working at another district attorney’s office in a different county.

Criss said the job seemed good at first, but as time went on she said she saw a lack of professionalism, a lack of training and a lack of oversight. There was an atmosphere of competitiveness between employees that Criss felt ran counter to the mission of the work they were doing.

“I understand not everybody you meet or work with is going to be nice,” Criss said. “You’re not going to get along with everybody, but there’s definitely a line that should never be crossed and that line was being crossed on a daily basis with absolutely zero regard for the individuals it affected.”

Though they did not want to leave their jobs, Kinney and Criss said they are glad the county opted to settle. For both women, the medical leave and other leave they took was a significant financial hit. Still, the settlements don’t solve even that — and there is more they don’t address.

Criss and Kinney said they filed the tort claim notice to try to push the county to do something and because they care about the work the district attorney’s office is supposed to be doing.

The district attorney’s office is pivotal to the workings of the criminal justice system, Kinney said. “And without that office functioning as it should, it just takes a toll on every other entity that is in touch with that office and that people rely on.”

“It’s such a widespread effect on so many people,” she added. “Because whether you’ve been in trouble or not, you know someone that has been in trouble or has been a victim of a crime. Whatever side of that they’re on, you know someone that has dealt with the district attorney’s office in some capacity — and without that office functioning, that just has a widespread effect on agencies and individuals themselves.”

Ultimately, they are not hopeful much will change at the office.

They have heard rumors that the two employees who were placed on administrative leave and who were the source of most of the messages referenced in Criss and Kinney’s tort claim notice are likely going to return. The same office supervisor and many of the same employees who were at the heart of the issues they experienced are also still employed there.

Meanwhile, Dawn Buzzard, chief deputy district attorney at the Clatsop County District Attorney’s Office — essentially Brown’s second-in-command — has filed to run for district attorney in the 2026 election. She has been with the office since 2001.

Like Brown, and — often — like Marquis before him, she is expected to run unopposed.

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