By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
A Yachats woman who lied about her background in the Lincoln County voter’s pamphlet three years ago to help get elected to a local fire board, pleaded guilty Thursday to breaking Oregon election law, was sentenced to 18 months probation and fined $2,500.
In exchange for a guilty plea from A’lyce A. Ruberg, the Oregon Department of Justice agreed to dismiss two other election violation charges.
In adding the fine, however, Lincoln County Circuit Judge Sheryl Bachart went above the plea agreement between Ruberg and the state, criticizing Ruberg for “a violation of the public trust.”
Bachart said Ruberg’s explanation for her voter’s pamphlet statement was “not convincing” and cited her history of arrests in California for forgery and perjury.
Ruberg, 52, attended the hearing remotely from a skilled nursing facility in McMinnville where she is living. She answered “I do” and “I did” and “Yes” to a series of the judge’s questions before pleading guilty.
Ruberg was indicted on three felony charges by a Lincoln County grand jury last December for violating Oregon election law in 2019 when she won a three-way race for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District board.
The indictments are the result of complaints filed with the Oregon Elections Division by at least four Yachats-area residents following stories in YachatsNews in September 2019. The YachatsNews investigation showed that Ruberg lied about her occupation, occupation history and education in the May 2019 county voter’s pamphlet.
In Oregon it is a Class C felony to make a false statement in required portions of a state or county voters’ pamphlet. Conviction is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison, a fine of as much as $125,000, or both.
Elijah Michalowski, the Oregon Department of Justice attorney who handled the case, said it was “not common” for an election law violation to wind up in court.
“This may be the third one in my career,” Michalowski told the judge. “But these are important cases that we take seriously.”
Michalowski said it was also important to have the felony conviction on Ruberg’s record because of the number of other allegations of dishonest conduct in Oregon and California.
Bachart agreed.
In addition to the usual conditions involving probation, the judge prohibited Ruberg from being involved in anyone else’s financial affairs or any conservatorships “because of your arrests on the record and your false statements here.”
Ruberg’s court-appointed attorney, Kristine Kayl of Newport, said Ruberg blamed the voter’s pamphlet statement on someone else who filled it out for her. But Kayl said Ruberg “takes responsibility for signing it” and resigned from the fire board when the issue was made public.
Bachart wasn’t buying that explanation.
“I rarely see something like this,” Bachart said in reply. “It seems quite deliberate … it wasn’t just one part of your background. I don’t see how this could accidentally happen.”
Ruberg took office in July 2019 and attended just three of nine Yachats fire board meetings before resigning in November, two months after the voters pamphlet lies were uncovered. The fire board had no authority to compel her to resign.
“I’m sorry that it happened,” Ruberg told the court. “It’s devastated my life.”
Ruberg was the only candidate for the Yachats fire board to pay for space in the voter’s pamphlet – where she listed her occupation as a registered nurse, listed an advanced degree in nursing and that she had worked for at least two fire agencies in California.
None of those were true, YachatsNews found after receiving an anonymous tip, eventually triggering investigations by the Elections Division and a separate one by the Oregon State Board of Nursing.
The nursing board turned down Ruberg’s application for a nursing license in July 2017 for a host of reasons, including not informing it of her criminal history in California, that she had lied in previous hospital job applications, and had given the agency emergency medical technician license numbers belonging to other people.
The nursing board voted to fine Ruberg $5,000 for falsely stating she was a nurse. Ruberg is seeking a hearing, which has still yet to be scheduled.
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
