Derrick Wojcik-Damers, former general manager of Twin Transit, speaks during a board meeting in December in Chehalis.
Twin Transit General Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge in Chehalis in 1996 — in which he was accused of stealing from his employer — but failed to disclose the conviction when seeking employment here in 2017, according to Twin Transit Advisory Board member Chad Taylor.
Wojcik-Damers, then known as Derrick Perona, was initially charged with first-degree theft after being accused of stealing at least $1,500 from the Sears department store where he worked from November 1995 to January 1996. He later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree theft, a Class C felony, ordered to pay more than $2,000 in restitution and sentenced to 45 days in jail, most of which was to be served via community service and other means.
The county filed multiple petitions in following years accusing Wojcik-Damers of failing to fulfill his financial and community service obligations. He did not complete his repayments until 2004, according to court filings.
Twin Transit documents list Jan. 26, 1975 as Wojcik-Damers’ birthday. The same date is given for Derrick Perona’s birthday on the document he signed affirming his guilty plea.
A 2014 personal injury lawsuit in Weld County cites “Derrick Wojcik-Damers” as an alias of Derrick Perona. Voter registration records list a Derrick Wojcik-Damers as having registered in Sept. 2015 in Strasburg, Colorado.
As Perona, Wojcik-Damers has been pursued more than 10 times by creditors in Washington and Colorado for defaulting on student loans, failing to make car payments and unpaid rent. Those cases span nearly two decades, from 1996 to 2017.
“This is an absolute shock to me and I would have thought the recruiting company we used would have found something like this,” Taylor said. “If it bears out to be true, we absolutely would not have hired him. I believe that everyone deserves second chances, but sometimes, depending on what they did, you don’t give people the opportunity to … I would never put someone in a position where they could do that again.”
Wojcik-Damers did not respond to requests for comment from The Chronicle.
Advisory Board Chair Bobby Jackson said, “I cannot comment on any of this at this moment and this conversation is over,” when contacted by Chronicle staff.
Taylor and former board member John Elmore each confirmed the hiring packet provided by recruiter The Prothman Company, which charged $17,000 plus expenses for its services, not to exceed $24,000, did not include the conviction or information about the earlier name.
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According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lewis County Superior Court on Jan. 26, 1996, Sears loss prevention staff cataloged 14 incidents in which Wojcik-Damers, then called Perona, fraudulently used customer credit card information to falsify merchandise returns. He then either pocketed the cash himself or transferred it to his own Sears account, according to court documents.
Wojcik-Damers pleaded guilty to the reduced charge in March 1996. Case files obtained by The Chronicle show Wojcik-Damers had 30 days of his sentence converted to community service, 14 days changed to either work release or electronic home monitoring, and was given credit for one day spent behind bars.
It is unclear when exactly Wojcik-Damers moved to Colorado and changed his name.
When he was hired at Twin Transit in late 2017, Wojcik-Damers cited work experience with public transit company TransDev in Denver and a degree in business administration from the University of Colorado conferred in 2010.
Taylor, a Chehalis city councilor and the advisory board chair when it hired Wojcik-Damers, told The Chronicle he does not recall any mention of a felony within Wojcik-Damers’ application materials and that all applicants would have been asked to disclose arrests and convictions as part of the application process.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the Fair Chance Act into law during the 2018 legislative session, prohibiting most employers from asking applicants about their criminal records. It took effect June 7 of that year, well after Twin Transit hired Wojcik-Damers.
According to Taylor, Wojcik-Damers did not list an alias, or past name on his application. State law dictates that potential employees can only be required to disclose felony convictions up to 10 years in the past, but a section of the application asking about past controversies or other information the agency should be aware of was also left blank.
The Prothman Company, a search firm that assisted Twin Transit during the hiring process, was unable to be reached for comment prior to press time.
Along with the felony theft case, Wojcik-Damers, then Perona, was named as a defendant in three additional Lewis County civil cases from 1996 to 1998.
The Chrysler Credit Corporation sued him and LeDuc’s Service Center in February 1996 alleging Wojcik-Damers of failing to make payments on a 1994 Nissan truck. Superior Court Judge John Hall ordered LeDuc’s, which had possession of the truck, to turn the truck over to the creditor in April of that year.
The following year, a man sued Wojcik-Damers alleging he had failed to pay two months of rent and utilities for a Chehalis apartment, then did not obey an eviction notice. The case was dismissed in October 1998 following a period of inactivity.
In January 1998, the State of Washington claimed Wojcik-Damers had received an overpayment of unemployment benefits worth nearly $1,100. The state Employment Security Department vacated $822 of its claim in March 2006.
Wojcik-Damers, then Perona, found himself the target of additional civil claims after he moved to Colorado. The Chronicle reviewed information for a dozen case files there. Not all resulted in judgements against Wojcik-Damers, but they follow a similar pattern to those contested in Washington.
For example, a payday loan store filed suit in December 2000 against a Derrick Perona in Jefferson County, Colorado. American Express, HBSC Bank, Discover Bank and Target National Bank all sought restitution.
The most recent court cases against Wojcik-Damers in Colorado are three separate filings on behalf of the National Collegiate Student Loan Trust against Derrick Perona. All three cases were closed in 2017 with judgements against Wojcik-Damers, then Perona, totaling about $100,000
