A high-profile Wallowa County game case that started almost five years ago has ended with an out-of-court settlement of $295,000 paid by Oregon State Police to two of the defendants.

The settlement has gone to Mark Hemstreet, 59, owner of the Shilo Inn chain of hotels and of the Troy-area Shilo Ranch in Wallowa County, and Gregg Clapper, 59, his long-time friend and political ally.

The pair were two of seven defendants who were cited in January 2005 with a wide range of 30 alleged game violations centered around Hemstreet’s Troy ranch.

After two years of legal wrangling, the cases against most of the defendants – including Hemstreet, his wife Shannon, daughter Stacy McDonald and Clapper – ended up being dismissed in late 2006 and early 2008.

Hemstreet and Caudle filed a suit against Oregon State Police and several OSP officers charging violation of civil rights and malicious prosecution on Feb. 11, 2008, in Baker The suit was scheduled to go to court in January, when the negotiated settlement was reached Nov. 4.

A written statement from OSP spokesmen Lt. Gregg Hastings, stated that the monetary settlement “related to a past investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Division.”

Hastings added that a personnel investigation was initiated after the legal action was filed and “led to a finding of non-termination disciplinary action against an employee.” He added that the identity of the employee and the exact disciplinary action sis not information that can be released.

“The settlement was determined to be in the best interest of the state,” the statement concluded.

“In terms of vindication, they wrote the check, we didn’t,” Clapper said about the settlement. “They filed an incredible number of charges against me and Mark , and every single one of the charges were dropped.”

Mark Hemstreet was originally charged with 11 counts, ranging from unlawful taking of a bull elk to loaning and borrowing a big game tag, and including five counts of false application for a resident license and tag in five different years.

Clapper’s charges were illegal possession of elk, borrowing a big game tag, failure to validate tag and exceeding bag limit of bull elk.

Clapper admits that he is “still angry” about the case. “It was five long years dealing with these people. The more they did to Mark (Hemstreet) and me the angrier it made us. That’s what motivated us to continue the fight.”

Clapper continues to be upset about the level of media coverage the game case received, versus the amount of attention the settlement has earned.

“In the Portland area, it was front page in the newspapers and top story in the TV newscasts. That wasn’t how it was covered when the press learned about the ultimate outcome, Clapper said. For example, the case was announced with lead-story front page coverage when it first broke; the settlement made front page of the Metro section.”

In the 17-page complaint filed in Baker County, Hemstreet had asked for economic damages of $104,635.44 and non-economic damages of $800,000, while Clapper’s claim was for $587,109.93 economic and $100,000 non-economic.

The economic damage claim in both cases was for “embarrassment, ridicule and scorn in many different media outlets throughout the State of Oregon and elsewhere.”

Out of the seven defendants in the widely publicized case, three were convicted: Brian Hemstreet, 37, for killing a bear with a tag borrowed from Shannon Hemstreet without her permission; Gordon Caudle, 45, for two counts of taking a bull elk without a tag and one count of borrowing a tag; and David V. Forni, 55, one count of lending an elk tag.

Mark Hemstreet was not available for comment about the recent OSP settlement, but

during a Chieftain interview in December 2006 following the disposition of his case, he said he felt that of the charges were piled on him for no reason.

“The question was why were they (the game charges) ever filed to begin with when they had no evidence and we made every effort to cooperate,” he said during the 2006 interview.

” Why? Because Mark Hemstreet has a different point of view and because I was one of a majority of Oregonians who supported and voted for Measure 8 (the public pension reform measure was later overturned on a technicality)…They blame me for that … it wasn’t meant to be vindictive against public employees it was meant to be fiscally responsible,” he said.

At that time, Hemstreet said he was considering a court case against the OSP.