Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel filed criminal charges against a former Deschutes County Sheriff’s Deputy Monday. According to Hummel, the charges followed a top-notch and thorough investigation conducted by the Oregon State Police.
Hummel charged the former detective with three counts of Official Misconduct in the First Degree and one count of Unlawful Dissemination of an Intimate Image.
The State alleges that on September 28, 2021, the deputy was called to the scene of a death. While investigating the death, he spoke with the girlfriend, who eventually asked the deputy to delete sexual pictures and videos of her and her boyfriend from her boyfriend’s phone. She asked him to do this because she did not want her boyfriend’s family to see the videos. Rather than deleting the pictures and videos, he transferred them from the decedent’s phone to his phone. This transfer of the erotic videos and pictures constituted the crimes of Unlawful Dissemination of an Intimate Image and Official Misconduct in the First Degree.
The State further alleges that on December 30, 2021, the victim (the decedent’s girlfriend) was being evicted from a local motel and motel management was denying her access to some of her personal items that were located in the room she had been occupying. The victim called the deputy for help, because she knew him from the investigation into her boyfriend’s death, and she trusted him. According to Hummel, the deputy was eager to “help,” went to the motel, represented to motel management that he was there on law enforcement business, and retrieved the victim’s belongings. This misrepresentation to motel management constituted the crime of Official Misconduct in the First Degree.
The State also alleges that after retrieving the victim’s items from the motel under false pretenses, The deputy called her and asked her to meet him in the parking lot of Shari’s Restaurant. When she arrived, he directed her to get into his car. When she got in the car, he was watching pornography on his phone, had an erection, was breathing heavily, and was not able to control his body movements. This act of a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Deputy directing a member of the public into a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office car to observe him watching a porn video, constituted the crime of Official Misconduct in the First Degree.
Hummel reported the first court appearance in this matter is November 29, 2022 at 1:15.
Statement from District Attorney Hummel:
“Our community entrusted him with a badge, handcuffs, and a gun on the condition that he would use the authority we granted him to keep our community safe. Instead, the evidence shows he weaponized the trust we put in him by taking advantage of someone who was particularly vulnerable due to her grief from losing her boyfriend.
The suspect “is presumed innocent, and in fact is innocent, unless and until the State proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That having been said, on behalf of the woman who was victimized in this case, and all the good cops in Deschutes County, my team and I will fight for justice to be done.”
