A former Oregon Department of Transportation employee accused of accepting kickbacks pleaded guilty in Clatsop County Circuit Court Thursday.

Thomas Butler, 38, of Seaside, is one of five people around the state indicted by the Oregon Attorney General’s Office as a result of a probe into bribery and kickbacks involving a Florida chemical supplier.

According to Assistant Attorney General Marc Weinstein, Butler accepted gift certificates from Stone Cold Chemical Co. in exchange for buying cleaning and de-icing products from the firm at inflated prices.

Stone Cold Chemical has prompted similar probes and criminal prosecutions around the country by authorities investigating the company, which cold-called thousands of people, mainly employees of highway departments, school districts and other public agencies who had authority to make purchases of supplies. The company enticed them to buy their products, sometimes for several times what the item might cost in the store, with offers of gift certificates from a variety of retailers.

Florida authorities pursued racketeering charges against the company’s executives and shut the firm down in 2003.

The state launched a probe of Stone Cold Chemical in 2003 and eventually identified almost 100 people in Oregon involved in similar kickback arrangements, said Attorney General spokesman Kevin Neely. Most of the cases fell below the $50 threshold for felony indictments, but four other people have been charged, most of whom reached plea agreements similar to Butler’s. One case still pending involves alleged kickbacks totaling “multiple thousands of dollars,” Neely said.

In Clatsop County Court before Judge Phil Nelson, Weinstein said that Butler received $279 worth of gift certificates for camping gear, car accessories and other items from the company over a period of four years in exchange for placing orders for various supplies for his department. Butler was the supervisor for ODOT’s regional bridge crew, which maintains more than 300 bridges between Westport and Pacific City. He was asked to resign in December after 15 years with the agency.

Butler was originally charged with bribery by receiving, a felony, and first-degree official misconduct. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and was sentenced to 30 days home detention and 15 days on the county work crew. He was also placed on probation for two years and required to pay $843 in restitution to ODOT, Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Justice and fined $2,600.

Butler’s attorney, Kris Kaino, told Nelson that Stone Cold salespeople used a marketing script book more than 300 pages long to learn about potential customers’ hobbies and interests, and play on that information during their sales pitches. In the case of Butler, an avid hunter and angler, the salesperson offered him gift certificates for Cabela’s, a popular sporting goods catalogue.

While the scheme involved sales across the country, few states have pursued charges against individuals who fell for the company’s pitches, Kaino said.

Following the hearing, Butler said Stone Cold seemed no different than the other vendors who regularly called him offering various supplies, and the company was included on the state’s approved vendor list. The products – mostly de-greasers – worked well, and the gift certificates, usually for $10 or $15, were offered to him as part of what the salesperson said was a promotion from Cabela’s, he said.

Butler said he saw the gift certificates as no different than the hats, T-shirts and mugs provided by private companies that he and fellow ODOT workers were allowed to pick up at seminars they regularly attended.