Former ODOT employees sentenced to prison for 16-year crime spree

OREGON CITY Ore. (KPTV) – Three former Oregon Department of Transportation employees were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison Friday after reselling stolen equipment worth millions of dollars.

According to the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office, the former employees and one of their spouses used their positions to purchase equipment using ODOT vendor accounts, created fraudulent invoices, stockpiled the fraudulently purchased equipment and resold the items for personal profit between 2004 to 2020.

Authorities say beginning in 2004, John Tipton an assistant manager of a landscape crew at ODOT began a criminal business of repairing chainsaws using parts stolen from ODOT. Eventually, Tipton involved his supervisor Frank Smead Jr. and his colleague Autumn Arndt.

Tipton purchased equipment and parts using ODOT accounts, taking the items either to his home in Lake Oswego or a storage unit to hold for resale, according to the D.A.’s Office. Smead and Arndt would then sell the fraudulently purchased items online.

Authorities say Smead also approved invoices of the fraudulently purchased items for payment by ODOT stating the purchases were for official ODOT business.

The wife of Frank Smead, Marta, was also charged for selling the stolen equipment online.

The four received the following charges:

John Tipton (former ODOT employee)

Sentenced to 12 years in prison for the following charges:

Aggravated Theft I (six counts)

Computer Crime (nine counts)

Theft I (12 counts)

Official Misconduct I (nine counts)

Frank Smead, Jr. (former ODOT employee)

Sentenced to seven years in prison for the following charges:

Aggravated Theft I (five counts)

Computer Crime (nine counts)