Marion County Sheriff’s Office. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

Matthew Higgins, a one-time Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy, arrested the wrong person, sent “unprofessional and flirtatious” texts to a crime victim and had a relationship with a recruit deputy before he resigned in in 2018, according to records obtained by Salem Reporter.

Higgins is one of eight Marion County sheriff’s deputies that have been “separated from employment” or arrested in the last two years.

The state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training earlier this month publicly released a three-year review of actions taken against Oregon law enforcement officers. The agency licenses police officers and investigates reports of their misconduct.

The disclosure of past actions by the agency was among police accountability reforms passed by the Oregon Legislature this summer. Such records weren’t readily available before nationwide criticism of police behavior led to weeks of protests in Portland and some in Salem with the persistent call for changes to police oversight.

The agency said of 180 officers who faced review since Aug. 1, 2017, 67 had action taken against them.

The names of Oregon law enforcement officers who were decertified by the agency are entered into a National Decertification Index, a national registry of certificate or license revocation actions related to officer misconduct.

Higgins, 32, was hired by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in 2011. In 2017, he was hailed for going above and beyond in local news reports for grocery shopping and cooking for an elderly woman.

But a year after he made the news, he became the subject of two internal investigations and later resigned on July 27, 2018.  

The first investigation started after a sheriff’s detective listened in on a call at the county jail as a woman told her husband that Higgins had texted her from his personal cellphone and sent messages that made her feel uncomfortable. 

Higgins would text the woman late at night and while off duty, according to the sheriff’s office investigative control form.

The woman later told investigators she didn’t report the flirtatious texts to the sheriff’s office because “I feel like all you guys are going to hate me and come after me, I’m trying not to get anyone in trouble you know. I don’t want to get pulled over one day for not putting my seatbelt on or something and be like, ‘Oh we’ll you’re [redacted] so we heard about you.’ You know?”

In an interview for the investigation, a deputy said if one of his peers gave out his personal cell phone number to someone he met on duty “I would think that would be really weird and unprofessional.”

Higgins denied flirting, telling investigators his contact wasn’t anything more than a “purely professional information finding relationship,” according to the sheriff’s office professional standards investigation.

The state investigation also established that it was an open secret among patrol deputies that Higgins had been banned from a Dutch Bros. for harassing female staff while he was in uniform in a marked patrol car. 

The report noted that a department administrative specialist at the agency was concerned the sheriff’s office would be publicly humiliated because of Higgins’ actions. 

Less than a month after detective Emanie Bravo learned about the private text messages over the jail phone, Higgins arrested a man without verifying his identity, according to the professional standards investigation.

The report said that Higgins intended to arrest a man which whom he had previous contacts and who he told investigators had used a fake name in the past. 

The transcript of his call to dispatchers indicated he was looking at the arrest warrant for that man but instead arrested Michael Zendejas, who compared to the man named in the warrant was two inches shorter and had identifying tattoos.

After Zendejas told Higgins he had the wrong person and provided his birthdate to confirm his identity, Higgins freed him. 

A sheriff’s office discipline consideration worksheet about the incident said that “Deputy Higgins decisions and actions constitute a violation of his authority, and violation of MCSO policies and procedures.”

His actions could expose the sheriff’s office to legal action and removing a person against his will to another location could be a possible law violation, the disciplinary record showed.

The report also noted that deputy Jessica Van Horn told a sergeant that Higgins, a training officer, messaged a recruit on Facebook and started a relationship with her.

UNTRUTHFUL

In another case disclosed by the state agency, Charles D. Huitt resigned as a Marion County sheriff’s deputy after an internal investigation found he submitted inaccurate reports while investigating a child sex abuse case.

Huitt, 55, was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in 2006 and later worked in the computer forensics unit for a year.

In 2014, he was awarded a Medal of Valor for shooting a fugitive in the leg to end a gun battle.

In a memo to Lt. Gerald Adcock, Detective Mary Jayne Patzer said she was reviewing Huitt’s report on a child sex abuse case on June 13, 2018, and noticed two inaccuracies. Huitt had claimed Patzer sent a text message about evidence that she knew she did not send. 

Huitt also wrote in his report that he had contacted a state Department of Human Services investigator after a man charged with abusing a child was released from prison, but Patzer said she was the one who contacted the investigator.

That state investigator later told Patzer she never got a call from Huitt, according to an email Patzer sent Sheriff Joe Kast on June 18, 2018.

Huitt told a sheriff’s lieutenant investigating the matter that his reports were an “in essence” summary of an interview and aren’t in the exact order that they occurred.

Huitt also explained that he left a voicemail at DHS to explain why he wrote he had “contacted” the caseworker in his report.

“I take that as extremely serious. almost on the level with other serious crimes and offenses because that impacts somebody’s reputation and credibility. It’s something that I take every seriously because we have to live and die on our reputation of credibility,” he told the sheriff’s lieutenant in an interview.

On July 5, 2018 the sheriff’s office “sustained findings that Huitt’s report wasn’t factual and the findings had brought his investigations into disrepute,” according to a memo prepared by Linsay Hale, professional standards division director at the state licensing agency.

Huitt retired while under investigation on Aug. 10, 2018.

Some state investigations were triggered by separate criminal investigations of officers, the newly released records show. Among the cases:

• Sean Banks, 51, a former sheriff’s office deputy, was arrested in July 2018 on 25 charges related to theft and evidence tampering and he resigned six months later. Banks’ jury trial, set for this month, has been canceled. He has a hearing on Oct. 7.

Last month, a Salem man sued Banks and the sheriff’s office, alleging that Banks stole guns and electronics from his home.

• Janet Eagleston, 49, a longtime jailer, was arrested for witness tampering and misconduct in May 2019. She is on a leave of absence from the sheriff’s office. Her trial, slated for Aug. 11, was canceled.

• Matthew Paton, 47, was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants on April 4, 2019, resigned May 12 and pleaded guilty on May 29, 2019.

The state agency also disclosed open investigations into other local officers.

Steven Mayberry retired last October after 24 years with the Salem Police Department. The state agency said it had an open investigation, but would disclose nothing about the matter. Salem police Lt. Treven Upkes said the department doesn’t comment on employment matters.

The agency listed three open investigations into former Marion County sheriff’s deputies – Justin Kinyon, Shawn O’ Brien and Jerry Wollenschlaeg. 

According to records from the state agency, Kinyon was dismissed on Oct. 18, 2019, but his case is still under review.

Wollenschlaeg retired on Nov. 11, 2019, after more than 20 years with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. He returned from a year-long leave of absence on August 2019, three months before his retirement.

O’Brien was dismissed for cause on Dec. 12, 2019.

Marion County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jeremy Landers said the department couldn’t comment about why the deputies were dismissed or retired.

The state oversight agency said it wouldn’t release information about those investigations until the cases were complete.

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Have a story tip? Contact reporter Saphara Harrell at 503-549-6250, [email protected] or @daisysaphara.