The Road Supervisor Who Stole From the County — and the Wife Who Sued Him in Prison
Orva Thompson, convicted of embezzling county road funds, is served divorce papers behind penitentiary walls by the woman he married eleven months earlier.
Serving a three and a half year sentence in the penitentiary, Orva Thompson, the delinquent road supervisor of District No. 31, sentenced last June to a term in prison for the embezzlement of county funds, is having further troubles. His wife, Mrs. Maud Thompson, this morning in the superior court instituted divorce proceedings against him. The summons was served on Thompson at the penitentiary.
The couple were married in Walla Walla last December. There are no children as a result of the union, nor is there any community property. Thompson was convicted of embezzling $113 of county money last June and sentenced to three and a half years.
His arrest and trial created considerable interest among Eureka Flat residents, where he was well known and regarded as an upright citizen. Overwhelming proof was offered by the state that he had misappropriated several hundred dollars of county funds, though a conviction was secured on a smaller sum.
“His arrest and trial created considerable interest among Eureka Flat residents, where he was well known and regarded as an upright citizen.”
A road supervisor trusted with district funds turns out to have skimmed several hundred dollars of public money — a story that could be filed under almost any decade of county government since. What makes it sting is the domestic tail: a marriage of eleven months ending by summons delivered inside a penitentiary, no property, no children, nothing to divide but the sentence. Walla Walla County still elects the officials who spend its road money, and the audit trail is only as good as the people watching it.
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