Another controversy with the Deschutes County Sheriff's office

From KLCC Studios, this is

Oregon on the

Record.

I'm Michael Dunn. Stop me if I sound like a broken record, but the first part of today's show is again going to focus on the dysfunction happening at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. This time, a longtime deputy has been found to have lied repeatedly about an incident involving SWAT and potentially covering it up, and an independent auditor is recommending his termination. And while that may seem kind of routine, there's a twist. The deputy is running to be the county sheriff, and if he wins, the investigation might just go away. Today on the show, OPB joins to bring us the latest in this central Oregon drama. Then, at the end of the show, two voices from our station join. First, to talk about a novel approach to housing affordability by St. Vinnie's, and then to get us ready for KLCC's fall membership drive. That's next on Oregon on the Record. It's safe to say that the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department is kind of a mess, and stability at the head of the department has been in short supply. Today on the show, a colleague at OPB brings us the latest of a candidate for sheriff that, if he loses, will probably be fired, but if he wins, will become the top cop. Jen Vides, who is a journalist who covers Central Oregon for OPB. Jen, it's great to talk to you again. Thanks so much for coming on.

Yes, thanks for having me, Michael.

Yeah, very interesting story. Again, at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. Before we get into the controversy, let's kind of remind folks who are the main actors in this play. Who is Lieutenant James Mack McLaughlin, and who is Ty Rupert?

Yes, so Lieutenant James Mack McLaughlin has been at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office for about 19 years, and Ty Rupert has been there for about 20 years and is our interim sheriff. He was appointed last year by the county commissioners after our previous sheriff retired suddenly.

Yes, indeed, indeed. Okay, so... Lieutenant McLaughlin has gotten into some hot water. We've talked about it before, but take a few minutes here to remind folks what he did, what he's been accused of, that sort of a thing.

Yes. So this all stems from a SWAT team arrest back in February of this year. Lieutenant James McLaughlin at the time was the head of SWAT. And there was an arrest at a property in which he was recorded with another deputy as making remarks on a ring video. They recorded him on a ring video. Mm-hmm. camera and the other deputy was talking about trumping up these charges against the woman who owned the home that they were arresting someone at against her saying like we'll get her we'll get him for burglary and we'll get her for false reporting and McLaughlin is caught laughing about it chuckling and saying that you know he really appreciated that deputy's vindictivism is the word he used

okay

So from that arrest, the woman who saw, she watched through her cameras as this was happening was, you know, obviously upset. She reached out to Mac about it and was told, I think we have some texts that we just got showing that he apologized for it, but it was never brought formally before as a complaint. And so that's where this sort of stems