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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. There's a certain mythology around the office of sheriff, especially here in the West: the tall, honest lawman who protects the innocent, especially in small rural towns. Well, recently, the image of sheriff in Deschutes County has been anything but a hallmark of integrity and honesty. Today on the show, you'll hear from an OPB reporter who covers Central Oregon and learn about the latest incident that has cast this department in a very unseemly light: lies, cover-ups and politics. Yep, this story has it all. Then, in the second part of the show, you'll hear from our own Love Cross about her continuing series, Oregon Ready, about emergency preparedness. This time she'll share her own personal story about the need to be ready for emergencies that crop up. Jen Baires, a contributing reporter for OPB. Jen, really great to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming in.
Jen Baires: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Dunne: Yeah. So, boy, let's just start with this. Tell our listeners who is Lieutenant James “Mac” McLaughlin.
Baires: Yeah. So, Lieutenant James McLaughlin is a 20-year veteran of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. He's also running for sheriff right now, and up until about a month ago, he was the head of the SWAT team.
Dunne: Hmm. And SWAT factors into this story. So let's talk about the arrest of a subject. His name was, I believe, Paul Akenhurst?
Baires: It's Paul Akhurst.
Dunne: Okay, what happened there? Talk about the arrest.
Baires: Yes. So this all started in February, February 25, when sheriff candidate Lieutenant James McLaughlin was leading the team that morning to where he knew Paul Akhurst was staying. More than a dozen officers surrounded a small home in Bend with a five-vehicle convoy, including a military-grade tactical armored vehicle. Akhurst was wanted on charges stemming from roughly $700 in theft, and he wasn't known to be a violent offender. This show of force from the SWAT team is now under scrutiny by Deschutes County, along with what some of the officers were recorded doing and saying that day.
Dunne: Yeah, so I guess we're looking at someone who led the SWAT team, and now this, what I think a lot of people might look at and see as overkill. Is the investigation centered on McLaughlin's leadership regarding this raid, or is there more going on here?
Baires: Yeah, definitely. On that day, McLaughlin was caught on the homeowner's security cameras talking with another officer who was making comments about wanting to trump up charges against Akhurst and get the homeowner, Kelly Hayes, for false reporting. He was going to say she had reported a burglary charge as well. After the officer told Lieutenant McLaughlin that, we hear McLaughlin laughing and saying he loves how vindictive this officer is being and that it's such a creative approach. The homeowner, Kelly Hayes, saw this on her Ring camera. She made a report to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office about what happened during the arrest. But before that, she actually talked to McLaughlin directly and told him she'd seen the video, and he apologized. She said he had the other officer apologize to her as well, but he never reported it further, and that's what this internal investigation really digs into. From the records we obtained through OPB, we see that they're looking at the fact that he didn't report it further, that McLaughlin didn't report the video's existence to anybody else, or at least his part in what was said on it, and they say that he and another officer also attempted to bury the video. So some of the charges are dishonesty, and also trying to coerce Akhurst into turning over the video so it wouldn't be made public.
Dunne: Okay, I want to talk a little about prior knowledge or relationships, because I'm wondering: has there been any evidence showing that Lieutenant McLaughlin had some kind of beef with Akhurst? I mean, certainly they pursued him for quite some time. To my reading, it seems like they really brought in, and I don't mean this lightly, the big guns to arrest him, and then some of what was caught on the video. Did they go to high school together? I don't even know. It just seems like there's potentially more here.
Baires: Yes, I thought the same thing. I did not find any connection between the two. I will say, one of the things I saw in looking back at arrest reports for Akhurst going back to October of last year, 2025, it seemed like there were two deputies he had a lot of interactions with, and these are both deputies who were also reportedly at this SWAT arrest. I can't say for certain that these are the same people who are on leave. We only know that McLaughlin is one of three officers placed on paid administrative leave following these events. But it does seem targeted. Why go after this person so hard for crimes that, you know, warrants for driving on a suspended license and theft that didn't amount to a whole lot in terms of money?
Dunne: This is the person whose property this arrest occurred on. I think in your story I saw she had actually met McLaughlin before and sort of knew him somewhat, and was able to call him up and get an apology. I don't know that members of the general public can simply call up the sheriff and say, ‘Hey, I didn't like what you did,’ and get an apology. Anything more about their relationship?
Baires: Yeah, that is one relationship I can speak to. I spoke with Kelly Hayes in the months following this incident, and she said she actually figured out that she and Lieutenant McLaughlin know each other while they were in the midst of the SWAT arrest at her property. She was talking to the officers through her Ring cameras; she has some around her house and in her garage. Lieutenant McLaughlin saw a picture of someone who's a known acquaintance between them, and through an interaction through the camera, realized he knew her, Kelly Hayes, and she knew him. I think they had both gone to churches associated with each other, so she felt after this that she could call him because she felt they had that personal relationship based on their faith.
Dunne: Okay, all right. Now let's bring in another character in this saga: interim Sheriff Ty Rupert. What's his role in all this, and explain his relationship with McLaughlin, because it is kind of an interesting one.
Baires: Yeah, so like McLaughlin, interim Sheriff Ty Rupert has been at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office for decades, I believe, and both of them, last year, when outgoing Sheriff Kent Vander Camp announced his sudden retirement, applied to be interim sheriff. So up until that point, they had been colleagues working together. They also were very much aligned with former Sheriff Kent Vander Camp; they were vocal supporters of his campaign while he was running. So the interim sheriff race is the first time we see these two officers step forward and separate from one another, becoming political opponents.
Dunne: Take it further, because if I'm reading this right, one is going to be investigating the other, or something like that.
Baires: Right. Now, obviously, given that we call him interim Sheriff Ty Rupert, Rupert was the one appointed in that contest between him, McLaughlin and a few other people who threw their hats in the ring to be interim sheriff last year. So we have the situation where he is now running the department and is in charge of any investigations that come up. So when this happened to James McLaughlin, who's also running for sheriff, Rupert decided the best course of action was actually to hire an outside investigator to try to create some separation, politically, between him and McLaughlin.
Dunne: Okay, so this investigation has started. I believe, like you said, an outside entity is going to investigate McLaughlin. This is happening during, I imagine, a campaign. So what has McLaughlin said about this incident? What has he told you or other reporters about his public position on what's happened, and perhaps how it might affect his race to become Deschutes County sheriff?
Baires: Yes. McLaughlin has categorically denied all allegations. He says he wishes he could say more, but given that this is an internal investigation, he doesn't want to disrupt it. So the only thing he's able to say publicly is that he denies the allegations. He's still actively campaigning, like you said. He's had events around town. I think everyone would like to hear more.
Dunne: I bet. I guess, too, that he obviously can say it's an ongoing investigation, so he can't comment. Do we have any idea how long this investigation might last, and might it overlap with the election itself?
Baires: That's a really great point, and I think we don't know. I followed really closely an internal investigation last year into a former political opponent, William Bailey, who ran for sheriff against Vander Camp, and that investigation took, well, we're still waiting for a final outcome, but it's been nine to 10 months. So it seems possible it could continue into November, but only time will tell.
Dunne: Indeed. Well, you've already brought up his name, so let's remind folks about the saga of former Sheriff Kent Vander Camp. What happened there?
Baires: Yeah, a lot happened there. Kent Vander Camp ran for sheriff in 2024 against Captain William Bailey, and during the course of that election, it came out that he was under an internal investigation by the current sitting sheriff. That investigation uncovered a previous work history he had at a police department in California, where he'd been terminated, and that was something he never reported on any of his applications in Oregon to work at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. That, plus, I think, some other issues came out during the course of the election. He was still elected, and then a few months later the district attorney here discovered that he had also lied under oath about his past, not just his work history but his educational background and the certifications he held. So he was placed on a Brady list because of that, and eventually it prompted an investigation by a state entity, DPSST, to look into taking his badge, which is eventually what happened. He cannot be an officer in Oregon ever again.
Dunne: Yeah, and I think that Brady list, if my memory serves, basically said that he wouldn't be allowed to testify because he is seen as an untruthful person, or something along those lines.
Baires: Yes. Sorry, the Brady list is basically that. It's officers who cannot testify under oath because it would be a problem for the district attorneys if they were testifying and weren't known to be always truthful.
Dunne: Sure, sure. Jen, my question here is this: as best you can, I mean, a lot has happened with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, and it seems to continue to happen. Have you gotten any sense from leaders, residents, just the general public, about whether they're getting sick of this? Is there any effort, I don't know, from the general voter, saying we need either better candidates or different candidates? What's the general vibe about the sheriff's office throughout Central Oregon?
Baires: Yeah, I think there's a lot of frustration among the general population here with the office, and one of the ways we see that is the fact that in the last election, the one between Vander Camp and William Bailey that I was mentioning, we had really low voter turnout for that race.
Dunne: Fertile ground for a reporter covering this story, and we really appreciate you coming on and telling us about it. She's Jen Baires, a reporter for OPB. Jen, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us.
Baires: Thank you, Michael.
Dunne: Let's now talk with our Morning Edition host, Love Cross, about her Oregon Ready series. KLCC's Oregon Ready series focuses on taking small steps toward disaster preparedness, and our own Love Cross has been on her own disaster preparedness journey. She joins us now to give us an update. Love, this is month seven of your year-long series. How's it going?
Love Cross: Yeah, month seven. It's just flying by. It's going well, Michael. I have really been learning so much about this topic as I follow the Eugene Water and Electric Board's Pledge to Prepare program. Just to remind listeners, the Pledge to Prepare program is a 12-month program. It's all about small steps each month that, by the end of the 12 months, should have you two weeks ready to shelter in place. That's because in an extreme situation, like a catastrophic earthquake, it could take local, state and federal agencies about two weeks to have resources in place. As I go through this process, one thing I've heard is that while pretty much everyone knows that major disasters like wildfires or the eventual Cascadia earthquake are true realities for us here in Oregon, many people just see disaster preparedness as a list of chores, so there's some reluctance or apathy. But I've also learned that any small amount of disaster prep can make a difference, even for a minor, inconvenient emergency.
Dunne: Yeah, and I want to focus on something you said, as I go through this process, because I heard you tell a story this morning during your shift on Morning Edition about how you had to put your own emergency preparedness skills to the test. Tell our listeners what happened.
Cross: Sure did, and I was so glad I had already taken the steps I had. A few weeks ago, I woke up to no running water. A water main on my street in south Eugene had broken. Water was rushing down the hill outside my house, but nothing was coming out of the taps. Thanks to my earlier efforts, I was prepared for exactly this kind of situation. I grabbed one of my stored water jugs and was able to brush my teeth, wash my face, make coffee and oatmeal, and even flush the toilet. I shared this story with Jenny Demaris, an emergency specialist with EWEB, at a recent disaster preparedness event, and here's what she said.
Jenny Demaris: That is a great example, and you might reference it as a dress rehearsal for a real disaster, because having that security and knowing that you are independent and you have the stability you need to maintain your daily life and daily operations, and if you happen to have kids at home or even pets, you are able to take care of your family. But yeah, it's really about the dress rehearsal for when things are really bad.
Cross: She was so right. One simple step I took months ago, just storing some water, really gave me exactly what preparedness is supposed to provide: independence and peace of mind when something unexpected went wrong. And I have to say, Michael, it was very empowering to feel like I was in control of the situation, but of course I had no control over the broken water pipe or when it would be fixed.
Dunne: Yeah, you know, Love, something I really like about your series is that it's not like you're building some sort of emergency compound. These are fairly small steps that are inexpensive and doable for pretty much anybody.
Cross: That's right, and that's kind of the design of the Pledge to Prepare 12-month program. I've come to learn that preparedness isn't really about just stockpiling supplies. It's about giving yourself options when something goes wrong, whether it's something major or something fairly minor, like what I experienced.
Dunne: Yeah, and you talked about seeing Jenny Demaris at a recent disaster preparedness fair. Tell us about that conversation.
Cross: Earlier this month, I went to an event at the YMCA in Eugene. Several organizations were tabling there: EWEB, of course, that's where Jenny was, the American Red Cross had some volunteers there, Eugene Springfield Fire, Lane County Emergency Management, and Eugene EmComm. I did a series special on them about their emergency radio communication volunteers earlier in Oregon Ready, and they were all there. I lingered around and heard the representatives interact with people who came by to check things out, and the question I heard over and over from each of those tables was, ‘Are you signed up for Lane Alerts?’ It was kind of shocking, because I'm obviously ensconced in this world right now, but many who came by said, ‘No, what's Lane Alerts?’ So if you're listening and you're in that camp, I want you to know that Lane Alerts is the emergency notification system used by local response agencies in Lane County to send critical safety messages. All 36 counties in Oregon have these kinds of alerts. There's Lincoln Alerts, Douglas Alerts and so on. Basically, you sign up, and then in an emergency you'll receive warnings through text messages, emails or phone calls, whatever you choose, for events such as wildfires, severe weather, floods, hazardous materials, urgent evacuations and the like. That was the main message from the representatives at that disaster preparedness fair: it's very easy to sign up for your county's alert system. A quick online search will take you to your county's emergency management page, where you'll find the details on how to sign up. And of course, we're smack in the middle of wildfire season right now. Things can happen so quickly with wildfires, so having a way for emergency managers to let you know if you need to be ready, be set or go now is really critical.
Dunne: So what's next for Oregon Ready?
Cross: Well, the Pledge to Prepare list for August has tips for securing your water heater, which could be very important in an earthquake. It's not too hard to do. But next month I'll also be exploring mental health as it pertains to disaster preparedness. Like I said earlier, some people really view all of this as just a list of chores, so I'm encountering such a spectrum of how people feel about being prepared. There are those who cross off every item and maybe even go to some extremes, and those who don't feel the need to take any steps at all. It's the ‘oh, I'll be fine’ or ‘that won't happen to me’ mindset. So I'll be exploring that from a psychological sense next month.
Dunne: Well, it's a great series and a lot of great information for people. Love Cross, thanks so much for doing it, and thanks so much for coming in and talking to me.
Cross: Yeah, thanks for having me, Michael.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On the Record are available as a podcast at klcc.org. Tomorrow on the show, we talk with a member of the Lane County Sheriff's Office whose new role isn't about arresting people, but about trying to save them when they're lost or missing in the backcountry. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On the Record. Thanks for listening.
