A candidate for Deschutes County sheriff is going to court to try to block the release of records about his early career in law enforcement.
The candidate, Kent Vander Kamp, is a sergeant with decades of experience, but the sheriff’s office has alleged he deceived its hiring managers decades ago when he applied for his job.
FILE The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office in Bend, Ore., Dec. 10, 2021. A candidate for sheriff, Kent Vander Kamp, is attempting to block release of his employment records.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
From February 1995 until January 1997, Vander Kamp was a reserve police officer with the city of La Mesa, California. His 2004 employment application to become a deputy in Oregon doesn’t list the stint in another state. Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson launched an investigation in March to determine if Vander Kamp was fired from that volunteer position.
The city of La Mesa initially refused to provide Nelson with information on Vander Kamp. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office then paid more than $15,000 in legal fees to get the records. The county received 110 pages last month and provided the documents to Vander Kamp’s attorneys.
Vander Kamp issued a public apology Friday for what he described as minor issues when he was with the California police department, saying that he had no knowledge of being dismissed.
“People are being distracted by a big nothing sandwich,” he said in a recent interview.
Vander Kamp’s attorneys declined to provide OPB with documents to verify his account, and in court records now claim releasing those records would cause Vander Kamp “irreparable harm.”
Deschutes County initially refused to release the records publicly, but relented Tuesday after numerous requests from OPB. County counsel David Doyle said the county would release the records by Wednesday afternoon.
Kent Vander Kamp poses for a portrait in Bend, Ore., on Sep. 26, 2024.
Emily Cureton Cook / OPB
Before that could happen, Vander Kamp’s attorneys told the county and OPB that Vander Kamp is pursuing a temporary restraining order to stop the release, and he plans to drag the media organization into court for seeking the records. Vander Kamp’s attorney also threatened more serious legal action.
“If the records are released before we can be heard on this matter, we will have to consider filing an action for damages against the involved parties,” attorney Andrew Mittendorf wrote in an email.
The maneuver comes after Vander Kamp told OPB in a Sept. 26 interview he supported releasing the La Mesa records.
His complaint filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court Oct. 9 indicates otherwise. It argues the records are confidential, and “there is no public interest that requires the disclosure of these records from almost thirty years ago in another state,” according to a copy of the complaint provided by Mittendorf.
The issue of Vander Kamp’s prior employment has become a growing hot spot in the contentious political race between him and his Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office colleague Capt. William Bailey. Both men are seeking to replace Nelson, who is retiring as sheriff.
In a recent interview, Vander Kamp claimed that he’s being targeted by a retiring sheriff with a history of alleged bullying and retaliation against his own staff.
Nelson has endorsed Bailey, and said he pursued the internal investigation into Vander Kamp based on a citizen complaint.
“This is not election interference,“ Nelson told OPB. “Our office is fulfilling its legal obligations and duty to investigate complaints.”
In April, the sheriff’s office hired a $750 per hour California attorney to sue La Mesa and force the city to turn over records about its decades-old investigation into Vander Kamp’s time as a reserve officer.
“This is just history repeating itself,” Vander Kamp said, referring to past allegations of discrimination and intimidation in the sheriff’s office under Nelson’s watch.
He took a humbler tone in an Oct. 4 public apology posted to his campaign website.
Vander Kamp said he “only recently” learned that he “was apparently dismissed from the volunteer position for using speed radar equipment without proper certification,” and that he also received “corrective training” for other minor issues as a reserve officer.
“I was young, immature, and inexperienced at that time, and I regret my actions,” according to Vander Kamp’s statement.
He asserted the records from La Mesa did “not include any dismissal or notice of discipline correspondence addressed to me.”
When asked in an interview whether he decided to stop serving as a reserve officer in La Mesa, or if the city told him not to come back, Vander Kamp said he didn’t remember.
Another one of Vander Kamp’s attorneys, Randy Harvey, said his client did not know he was fired, and that it’s not clear that the city followed due process for a dismissal if he was. He described the records detailing the city’s investigation as confidential under California law.
“I can’t promise you that you’re ever going to get records,” Harvey said the day before his colleague Mittendorf notified OPB of his client’s legal complaint.