Problems piling up for state trooper, wife

A Washington state trooper from Colville, fined last year for selling $600,000 worth of unregistered securities, now has more problems.

Trooper Kenneth J. Sjordal has been passed over for promotion eight times this year, and is being investigated on new misconduct allegations that WSP officials haven’t publicly disclosed.

Now his wife, Kandy G. Sjordal, has been charged with assaulting a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband, deputies said.

Kandy Sjordal, 37, allegedly rammed her Chevrolet Suburban into the other woman’s Ford Expedition and then twice struck the woman in the face.

Efforts to reach the Sjordals for comment were unsuccessful.

Kandy Sjordal is to be arraigned Tuesday in Stevens County Superior Court on one count of second-degree malicious mischief and one count of fourth-degree assault.

The malicious-mischief charge is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in state prison, while the gross-misdemeanor assault charge carries a maximum term of a year in the county jail.

According to court documents filed Thursday, Kandy Sjordal and her victim recognized each other Monday as they approached each other at an intersection just east of Colville.

Two witnesses told a sheriff’s deputy that Sjordal appeared to ram the other woman’s car deliberately. The cars collided head-on with such force that the alleged victim’s airbags deployed and the woman reported being dazed.

The witnesses said Sjordal walked to the victim’s vehicle and began hitting her. Deputy Kendle Allen reported that Sjordal told him she suspected her husband was having an affair with the other woman.

But Sjordal denied hitting the other woman in the face or crashing into her vehicle deliberately. Sjordal said she merely tried to stop the other woman so she could talk to her, according to court documents based on Allen’s report.

Ken Sjordal arrived at the scene shortly after the accident occurred and talked to his wife, Allen reported. Although Ken Sjordal has not been relieved of duties while under investigation, he was off duty at the time of the accident, according to WSP Capt. Jeff Otis.

Sjordal agreed last year to pay a $5,000 fine to settle a state Securities Division charge that he sold at least $600,000 worth of unregistered logging-company securities in violation of the anti-fraud section of the state Securities Act.

Bankruptcy Court records show the company, Brock Contracting, owed 11 unsecured lenders $746,184, including unpaid interest, when it collapsed in December 2000. Those who lost money – an estimated $500,000 – were mostly Sjordal’s co-workers, friends and relatives.

Despite the magnitude of the losses and sworn testimony that Sjordal falsely claimed he wasn’t a paid salesman for Brock Contracting, the State Patrol resolved the issue by docking Sjordal two days of vacation in July 2002.

Last year, while still deputy chief, WSP Chief Lowell Porter called the settlement “a huge mistake … one of the most unpleasant incidents in my career.” Porter has since refused eight times to promote Sjordal to sergeant even though Sjordal is at the top of a civil service list.

There has, however, been some good news recently for the embattled trooper. He’s in line for an unexpected $19,646 share from his own bankruptcy estate.

Sjordal claimed at different times to have lost $40,000 to $50,000 on his own investments in Brock Contracting, or as little as $467. But he and his wife listed $318,445 in debts when they filed for bankruptcy in October 2001.

They were allowed to retain possession of their home, in which bankruptcy trustee Joe Esposito said they had only about $6,000 worth of equity.

The rural Colville-area home came back under Bankruptcy Court jurisdiction when the Sjordals arranged last year to sell it for $259,000.

Then officials discovered a Stevens County Building Department mistake that allowed Esposito to gain money for the unsecured creditors he represents – mostly credit-card companies, not the Brock Contracting victims.

The Sjordals’ property was on two parcels. One was 20 acres; the other, 5.4 acres.

The building permit for the house mistakenly said it was on the 5.4-acre parcel. That prompted two banks to grant mortgages with liens only on the 5.4-acre parcel.

The banks wound up with nearly $200,000 worth of debt arguably secured only by 5.4 acres of unimproved timberland worth about $30,000.

Esposito filed a lawsuit to invalidate the liens with regard to the house so the sale could proceed. In mediation, the banks agreed to surrender their liens in exchange for $46,000 from the sale proceeds.

Anticipating the settlement, the Sjordals filed a claim last October for $28,646 from the sale proceeds. Federal bankruptcy law allows debtors to keep up to $40,000 worth of value in their homes.

As part of Esposito’s settlement with the banks, the Sjordals agreed to give the banks $9,000 of their $28,646 claim – leaving $19,646.

Bankruptcy Judge John Klobucher signed off on the settlement last month.