Last September, then-Deschutes County Sgt. Kent van der Kamp was about to win a big promotion. As a candidate for sheriff, he promised to reform a public safety agency with a history of costly lawsuits and overspending.

But as Election Day neared, van der Kamp’s future seemed increasingly imperiled by accusations of dishonesty. His bosses at the sheriff’s office were investigating him. They claimed he covered up being fired from another law enforcement agency for misconduct, including dishonesty. Van der Kamp dismissed the probe as dirty politics and exactly the type of power abuse he was pledging to root out, if elected.

At the same time, a longtime deputy at his office came under internal scrutiny. Deschutes K9 Deputy Ryan McNee was put on leave Sept. 25 amid an internal investigation into accusations he used excessive force and was dishonest on the job.

In March 2024, a high-speed chase took deputies from multiple law enforcement agencies across county lines. The three occupants of the car evaded police, abandoned the vehicle and fled to a barn near Prineville, according to sheriff’s office records. When McNee arrived on the scene to join other officers, he released his canine. The dog bit one of the passengers.

An internal investigation followed. Sgt. Blair Barkhurst was assigned to look into the incident. He found the bite was problematic for several reasons.

“McNee has a cavalier attitude regarding a canine use of force,” Barkhurst wrote in his internal report, which OPB obtained through a public records request.

Barkhurst determined McNee violated the department’s use of force policy by sending his dog without warning, not considering de-escalation strategies first, and having the K9 stay clamped on the passenger for longer than was necessary.

In the incident report McNee filed afterward, the deputy falsely claimed he warned the suspects before releasing his dog, Barkhurst found.

Since 2022, McNee has been internally investigated for five separate incidents, including the barn incident. Internal investigators have sustained 10 violations against McNee, including unbecoming conduct, excessive force, and issues related to multiple high-speed chases. The dishonesty finding from the most recent investigation could have been a career-ending charge.

But after van der Kamp became sheriff, he reversed the investigator’s finding of dishonesty.

Van der Kamp did that in a mandatory disciplinary report about the deputy sent to the state last month. The sheriff also brought McNee back to active duty.

By keeping McNee on the job and overruling the finding of dishonesty, van der Kamp shielded the deputy from the possibility of a state probe similar to the one he is facing.

It’s a decision that underscores the power of a sheriff to decide who ultimately is or isn’t fit to be law enforcement, even when their own credibility is being questioned at the highest levels of police oversight.

‘A retirement plan’

Van der Kamp didn’t break the rules when he gave the state different findings than what the internal investigator wrote in his report, said Sam Tenney, a spokesperson with the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, or DPSST.

Local law enforcement agencies don’t have to report internal investigation outcomes at all, unless they include disciplinary actions. The only other time DPSST gets involved is if it receives a complaint from the public, Tenney said.

A 2023 public complaint is what started DPSST’s probe into van der Kamp’s history. Agency staff recently concluded that the sheriff lied on a number of occasions dating back to 2004.

DPSST staff found van der Kamp was “intentionally dishonest” and falsified documents about being terminated from a California police department in the 1990s. They also found he misrepresented his higher education under oath while testifying in Deschutes County decades later. Now, he faces the possibility of losing his badge. DPSST’s Police Policy Committee is set to consider the future of his certifications on May 22.

State law requires a person holding the office of sheriff to be certified as a police officer within one year of taking office, according to Sam Tenney.

“A police officer who is unable to obtain or maintain their certifications cannot perform the duties of a police officer in the State of Oregon. If an officer’s certification is revoked, they have the option to appeal and request a hearing. During that appeals process their certification is still valid and under review until a final order is issued,” Tenney said in a March email.

While van der Kamp, 52, is resisting calls from other elected officials and some constituents to resign immediately, he said he is considering leaving on his own terms.

“I am making different plans right now with my team to formulate a retirement plan in the near future,” van der Kamp said by phone on May 13. “I just haven’t made any final decisions.”

McNee accused in lawsuit

Meanwhile, van der Kamp declined to talk about his decision to bring McNee back to active duty or discuss the deputy’s history of internal investigations, citing pending litigation against Deschutes County and McNee.

He was referring to a Feb. 10 lawsuit filed by a Redmond woman accusing McNee of assaulting her while on duty.

Kacie Dagenais says in the lawsuit that she was parked in a residential neighborhood of Redmond around 2 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2024.

McNee parked behind her with his lights off, and according to the lawsuit, she wasn’t aware he was there until she tried to open the door to get out of the car. McNee forced the door closed on her and asked why she was “trying to run,” her lawsuit states.

McNee did not immediately identify himself as a law enforcement officer, according to Dagenais, and when she tried to turn on her dash camera to record what was happening, she claims the deputy tore the camera out of her car. McNee “ripped” her out of the vehicle before “slamming” her to the ground, the lawsuit states. Before filing in court, Dagenais told county officials in a tort claim notice that she went to the emergency room with injuries to her head, shoulder, ribs and wrist.

It’s not clear why McNee approached Dagenais’ car. Officials with the sheriff’s office declined to comment on her lawsuit. They denied a public records request for police records about the alleged assault, citing pending litigation. Court records show Dagenais has not been criminally charged in connection with the incident. Her lawsuit seeks $275,000 in damages.

The sheriff’s office did not respond to an interview request for McNee. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Jesus take the leash’

McNee joined the sheriff’s office in 2015 and worked his way up from a reserve officer. Until recently, he was a member of the department’s K9 unit.

On March 3, 2024, McNee and his K9, Rico, responded to the barn outside of Prineville. Other officers were surrounding the suspects inside after a high-speed pursuit across Central Oregon.

McNee arrived on the scene and released K9 Rico on the suspects without giving them warnings or a chance to surrender, according to other officers interviewed for the internal investigation.

No warnings were recorded on the body camera footage from nearby officers. McNee’s body camera wasn’t on, another policy violation.

Days later, McNee filed reports stating he followed the sheriff’s office policies for canine use of force. That means giving three warnings and enough time in between each one for the suspects to surrender, before sending in a dog.

During the internal investigation about six months later, he said his report may have been inaccurate.

“I don’t know if I said it. I don’t know if I said it three times, I don’t know if I said those exact words,” McNee told the investigator, Barkhurst, according to a transcript of the interview.

According to Barkhurst, fellow officers raised concerns about McNee after the incident.

“His attitude was, ‘We’re the police, you shouldn’t run from the police, and Jesus take the leash.’ And he just kicked the dog loose,” DCSO K9 Deputy Nautique Slater told Barkhurst, according to the investigator’s report.

Prosecutors declined to pursue a case against any suspects involved in the high-speed pursuit, “due to the interest of justice,” Jefferson County District Attorney Steve Leriche wrote in his memo detailing why he’d opted not to file charges.

Leriche said in an interview with OPB that the damage caused to the suspect’s car by officers factored into his decision. He said McNee’s conduct was not a factor.

Who prosecutors trust

After the internal investigation, McNee was docked two days’ pay, removed from the K9 unit and put on a 12-month probation.

Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels reviewed McNee to determine whether or not to place the deputy on the Brady List. Named for a landmark Supreme Court case, the list is a registry of local law enforcement officers prosecutors have deemed too untrustworthy to testify.

Gunnels decided not to list McNee.

“We conducted an independent investigation of the claim,” Gunnels said, “and ultimately I determined that although the statement in his police report was wrong, I attributed that to sloppiness on the deputy’s part rather than intentional dishonesty.”

But Gunnels did put the deputy’s new boss on the Brady list.

In an unrelated investigation, Gunnels found Sheriff van der Kamp gave false testimony in at least three criminal trials.

Van der Kamp claimed in court records and on the stand to have gotten degrees from universities that have no record of him attending. He also testified he was a paramedic, a claim Gunnels said his office found no evidence to support.

In cases from 2012 to 2015, van der Kamp submitted numerous resumes and gave oral testimony repeating false claims that he received various degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona. In the 2024 Oregon Voters Pamphlet, van der Kamp did not claim to have gone to either school, and instead said he received a master of business administration from Trident University and a bachelor of science from the University of Phoenix.

The Deschutes DA banning van der Kamp from testifying means past cases where he’s testified could be reopened or dismissed. Gunnels has asked defense attorneys to come forward with any cases of concern. He said six criminal cases are in the process of being reviewed and potentially dismissed.

As a former member of the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement team, van der Kamp routinely worked cases across county lines.

The prosecutors in Crook and Jefferson counties each said they respect Gunnels’ decision and take his move to ban van der Kamp from testifying in Deschutes County seriously.

“I am reviewing Jefferson County cases where Sheriff van der Kamp might have an involvement,” Leriche wrote in an email.

Crook County District Attorney Kari Hathorn said her office has also reviewed all cases where van der Kamp might have been involved.

“I can’t imagine a situation where I would call a witness who is on another DA’s Brady List as a witness,” Hathorn said.

‘A chaotic environment’

Among Deschutes County’s leadership, some of van der Kamp’s past supporters said they are waiting on DPSST’s findings to decide how they feel about his future as sheriff. Other elected officials are making it clear they think the sheriff should resign.

“When there’s dishonesty and the work of the sheriff’s office is in doubt, that creates a chaotic environment,” said Rep. Emerson Levy, D-Bend.

Levy called for van der Kamp to step down.

“This position, like all public officials, requires that the public can trust the outcomes, that our judges can trust the police and the sheriff’s department testifying. And that trust has been breached,” she said.

Last week, the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association voted to remove van der Kamp from the board of directors for the association, a nonprofit with a mission to provide training and support for sheriff’s offices.

“The motion passed unanimously, with 32 Oregon sheriffs voting on the issue,” according to a press release from OSSA.

Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler has been vocal about pressuring the sheriff to resign, while the county commissioners who oversee his department have been less clear.

Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang was a vocal supporter of van der Kamp during the election. During the campaign, Chang praised his platform to rein in spending and steady an office that was embattled by discrimination claims and expensive settlements under former Sheriff Shane Nelson.

“I do want to say that I appreciate that in his four months in office van der Kamp has brought us a fiscally sound and responsible budget for the next fiscal year, which is something that we haven’t had at the sheriff’s office for many years,” Chang said last week, also citing a boost in recruitment and elimination of a separate legal counsel position within the department.

The sheriff’s inability to testify on behalf of the county because of past dishonesty, Chang said, is a concern.

“That raises some significant questions for, I think, the public, and for myself, about the sheriff’s fitness to serve,” he said.

County Commissioner Patti Adair also endorsed van der Kamp last fall. Like Chang, she said she’s looking to the DPSST decision for guidance.

“May 22 should give complete CLARITY on situation,” Adair wrote in an email to OPB.

That’s when DPSST’s staff will present their findings about van der Kamp to the Police Policy Committee, which could recommend taking actions on the sheriff’s certifications to be a sworn officer, including revoking them.

Editor’s note: During the 2024 election cycle, van der Kamp took OPB and Deschutes County to court in an attempt to seal records about his past law enforcement experience in La Mesa, California. A judge found the lawsuit lacked any reasonable basis. OPB continues to have active litigation to recover legal fees accrued defending itself from van der Kamp’s lawsuit.

This story was reported by freelancer Jen Baires. OPB is a nonprofit, statewide news organization with a mission to tell stories for communities in all parts of Oregon and Southwest Washington. As part of that goal, we work with partner news organizations and freelancers to identify stories like this that might otherwise go untold. If you have an idea for a story, live in an area outside Portland and want to work with us, send your freelance pitches to [email protected].

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/20/deschutes-county-kent-van-der-kamp-sheriff-oregon-brady-list/