The Targeting of Sergeant James McLaughlin
This past weekend, our inbox was filled with messages and emails from some outraged and outright angry folk. The cause of this anger was a recently opened Internal Investigation (IA) against Detective Sergeant James McLaughlin — A highly respected supervisor at the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office
The general theme of the messages was to complain that McLaughlin was being targeted for his political views and in particular his public and vocal support for Sheriff’s Candidate Kent Vander Kamp.
After a little digging, we discovered the focus of McLaughlin’s IA was an alleged policy violation resulting from an “inappropriate conversation” he had with a subordinate deputy about a superior officer. In plain language, McLaughlin supposedly said some mean things about a supervisor to or in front of a deputy.
What exactly was said, and whether the deputy or someone overhearing the conversation made the report is unknown to us at this time.
That said, we are absolutely certain this information will make its way to us, and when it does we will be sure to update this story with the full details of the alleged conversation, as well as all those involved.
In our view, if Sheriff Shane Nelson and his command staff are going to target McLaughlin for this alleged policy violation, then they might as well open investigations against just about every supervisor and deputy.
Simply put this behavior is so common at the Sheriff’s Office that it is laughable a formal investigation would be opened specifically against, of all people, James McLaughlin for something this trivial if indeed the allegations are true and about which we are skeptical
Based on prior history at the Sheriff’s Office, we strongly believe that at its core this investigation is nothing more than a targeted attack by Sheriff’s Office leadership on a highly popular and respected leader who dared to publicly support Kent Vander Kamp for Sheriff as opposed to Nelson’s chosen successor Captain William Bailey.
We will delve more deeply into possible motivations for this internal investigation; however, we must first answer the question, “Who is Sergeant James McLaughlin?”
WHO IS SERGEANT MCLAUGHLIN
Sergeant James McLaughlin joined the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in November 2007.
Prior to joining the Sheriff’s Office McLaughlin served as a member of the highly elite Force Recon Company of the US Marine Corps subsequent to which he became an ordained minister at Eagle Mountain Church in Bend Oregon.
McLaughlin is unquestionably highly respected within the community as well as within the Sheriff’s Office by both his peers and his subordinates.
He has a reputation for being an honorable and honest leader who puts the welfare of those whom he supervises above his own — A rare attribute within the current leadership at the Sheriff’s Office.
McLaughlin is currently a SWAT commander and leads the Sheriff’s Office Street Crimes Unit; however, in reality McLaughlin is effectively managing the Sheriff’s Office street crimes unit, the major crimes unit, and the SWAT team.
The reason is that Lieutenant Don Manning, the overall manager of these three teams is not known to be the most competent supervisor nor is he known to be the sharpest knife in the draw.
We would go so far as to say that when McLaughlin is not by his side, Manning is “wandering around in circles” lost.
Thus the task of managing the Sheriff’s Office detectives and the SWAT team has fallen onto the shoulders of Sergeant James McLaughlin who has thus far done the work competently and without complaint.
The truth of the matter is that for many critical incidents or major crimes which the Sheriff’s Office must respond to, it is more likely than not that it is McLaughlin on scene, running incident command and managing the crisis.
McLaughlin’s commitment to the Sheriff’s Office and his community often has him placing duty to the Sheriff’s Office above his own family. He will without complaint return to duty to take over a major incident and has done so while on vacation, when off duty and even when on family leave. This is no hyperbole.
We give the example of an incident occurring on March 2, 2023, where a suspect, Nicholas Ryan Preston-Cooper, fired a rifle at the Deschutes County Adult Jail in the hopes of drawing law enforcement into an ambush before fleeing the scene. (Story linked below)
The incident was rapidly unravelling and was clearly headed towards disaster before McLaughlin, despite being at home and off duty, heard the chaos on his police radio. He immediately left his family, returned to duty, took over the incident, restored order, and safely apprehended Preston-Cooper.
In October, 2023, it was Sergeant McLaughlin who almost single-handedly prevented a devastating mass casualty event in Deschutes County
Through his dogged pursuit of a lead out of Portland that no one else on the Sheriff’s Office leadership team seemed to care about, McLaughlin tracked down and, with the support of his team, arrested Mr. Samson Garner.
A subsequent search of Garner’s vehicle yielded a large cache of firearms and ammunition. Garner was allegedly planning to commit mass murder at the upcoming “Craggin’ Classic” event at Smith Rock. (Story linked below)
Thanks to MacLaughlin and his team, Smith Rock did not become a tragic memorial to slain innocents at the hands of a madman — an event that would surely have changed the face of Deschutes County for decades to come. And thanks to McLaughlin’s dedication, selflessness and sense of duty countless innocent lives were saved.
McLaughlin also gained national attention as the lead Sheriff’s Office detective who brought Kaylee Sawyer’s murderer, Edwin Lara, to justice. This sad story was told in a Dateline NBC episode “Into the Night” (linked below).
The above are but a few examples taken from the large number of cases and incidents in which it was McLaughlin who made the critical difference.
It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that James McLaughlin is loved and admired not only his colleagues and subordinates but also by law enforcement professionals working at multiple agencies across Oregon. Those who work with and for James McLaughlin speak of him only in words of praise and admiration.
All of which raises the question: What were the events causing Sergeant James McLaughlin to be targeted by Sheriff’s Office leadership?
THREE STRIKES
Strike 1
McLaughlin’s problems started when he took personal initiative and nominated Deputy Michael Mangin and his partner K9 Ronin for the nationally prestigious “Spikes Tactical K9 of The Year Award”. (Story linked below)
Thanks to McLaughlin’s nomination as well as Mangin and K9 Ronin’s hard and courageous work, the duo would go on to win this award by beating out K9 teams from across the nation.
Now you would think receiving such a prestigious award would be extremely well received by Sheriff Nelson and his command staff. After all it put the Sheriff’s Office in a tremendously positive light on the national stage and garnered a lot of good will with the community.
Unfortunately you would be wrong.
The problem was that Mangin had recently missed a court date for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO). Unfortunately the target of the ERPO eventually went on to commit suicide using a gun that was lawfully returned to him by the Sheriff’s Office.
We will not go into details of this story as it is complex enough to merit its own article; however, the fact is that Mangin should not have missed court and we understand he has never contested this point.
The suicide victim’s family was allegedly incensed with the Sheriff’s Office and were threatening all kinds of legal action. This was a problem for Patrol Division Commander Captain Bailey who is running for Sheriff and thus legal action against his division, with all the public scrutiny that would come with it, was something he could ill afford to become embroiled in.
Based on the poor treatment Deputy Mangin received at the hands of command staff and the disproportionate punishment meted out to him, and which he is currently contesting in arbitration proceedings, we think that Nelson and Bailey intended to make an example of Mangin to appease the suicide victim’s family and keep Bailey out of court.
To the minds of Sheriff’s Office leadership, Mangin’s and K9 Ronin’s national award put a major wrench in their plans for Mangin which apparently incensed Shane Nelson to the point that he essentially accused McLaughlin of being a traitor who was intentionally trying to usurp Nelson’s power and authority by nominating Mangin for the “Spikes Tactical K9 Award.”
You cannot make this kind of twisted logic up.
Strike 2
Early in 2024, Sergeant McLaughlin began publicly supporting Sergeant Kent Vander Kamp for Sheriff.
McLaughlin did so on his own time including on his personal Facebook page. He was also seen wearing a “Vote Vander Kamp” baseball cap at the “First Sheriff Candidate Forum” held in Sunriver on February 26, 2024.
In addition, McLaughlin’s family members have regularly manned Kent Vander Kamp’s official campaign table at various fund raising and community events.
We would emphasize that all of these activities are not only perfectly legal but are also part and parcel of living and participating in a democracy,
Unfortunately for McLaughlin, he worked for Shane Nelson and was supporting the wrong candidate. By not supporting William Bailey, Shane Nelson’s chosen candidate, and the one who Nelson had publicly endorsed and was actively supporting, McLaughlin ran the risk of angering Nelson for his perceived lack of loyalty.
Based on prior history, it is not hard to believe that McLaughlin’s public support for Vander Kamp did anger Nelson who famously demands absolute loyalty from those who work for him.
Moreover, given McLaughlin’s significant influence and popularity both within the Sheriff’s Office and the broader community, his public support for Vander Kamp must have been particularly stinging for both Nelson and Bailey.
Strike 3
On April 24, 2024, Sergeant Kent Vander Kamp held a fund raising event at McMenamins in Bend. This was to all intents a well attended event featuring high profile donors, politicians as well as other influential members of the community.
It was at this event that Sergeant McLaughlin stood up in front of the room and gave an impassioned and extremely well received speech in support of Vander Kamp.
From what we have been told this speech was so moving to those in attendance that at its conclusion many attendees walked up to McLaughlin and thanked him for it.
This must have sent the alarm bells ringing at the Sheriff’s Office. There was no way Nelson could allow one of his employees, especially one with so much influence, to challenge his favored candidate in such a brazen and public manner.
MOTIVATION
In our opinion, Shane Nelson’s motivations for targeting McLaughlin are several fold.
First, by targeting McLaughlin a clear message is sent to Sheriff’s Office employees to get in line or else.
Put bluntly the message is: “If we can do it to McLaughlin, we can do it to you so get back in line”. This of course is the hallmark of every petty authoritarian and it is no different with Nelson’s autocratic administration.
Secondly, it is to intimidate and silence Sergeant McLaughlin by having him back down from exercising his First Amendment right to publicly support and speak about any candidate of his choosing.
Third, it is to discredit James McLaughlin. By opening and pursuing an investigation against McLaughlin, Nelson and Bailey can argue that anything McLaughlin says in public is just sour grapes on McLaughlin’s part.
Fourth, its is to use the current investigation as a springboard to dig up further dirt on McLaughlin.
This is a tool Nelson has used in the past. Specifically we think the hope is that during McLaughlin’s interview with Jim Ferraris, an outside investigator hired by Nelson, Ferraris can dig up further “policy violations” which can be used to open additional investigations against McLaughlin.
Fifth, it is to ultimately get rid of Sergeant James McLaughlin as was done with former Captain Deron McMaster before him. (McMaster currently has an outstanding 2.5 million dollar lawsuit against Shane Nelson and the Sheriff’s Office)
Nelson has shown a willingness to pay large sums of Deschutes County tax payer money to either settle or pay jury awards for lawsuits brought against him by his own employees. After all it isn’t Shane Nelson’s money and at the end of the day the undesirable employee is gone.
As a reminder, just between 2015 and 2021 thanks to Sheriff Shane Nelson, Deschutes County has paid almost $3.5 million to defend and settle claims against Nelson and the sheriff’s office. In that time, Nelson’s own employees have filed at least 25 complaints against him.
Consider that in the same timeframe the Portland Police Bureau, an agency five times larger than Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, has paid out roughly $4.8 million, including one settlement for $2.1 million.
Nearly all of Portland’s payouts have been related to civil lawsuits brought by the community and NOT grievances brought by employees as with most of the Shane Nelson’s payouts.
SUMMARY
At the end of the day, the reason Shane Nelson is targeting Sergeant McLaughlin likely comes down to politics and the visceral need to stamp out any perceived dissent or disloyalty.
All opposition to William Bailey must be silenced, and making an example of someone with McLaughlin’s status and reputation sends a chilling message to the rest of the employees at the agency.
McLaughlin has tremendous influence within the Sheriff’s Office and in the wider community. This must terrify Nelson and his protege William Bailey especially considering how much the latter is disliked by Sheriff’s Office rank and file.
Given McLaughlin’s undisputed and selfless commitment to his agency, his community as well as to his colleagues and subordinates it is absolutely appalling to us that Nelson would stoop to such low depth to target him.
Though we are appalled, we are unfortunately not surprised as this has historically been Nelson’s MO.
We wonder who will next on Sheriff Nelson’s hit list. Quite frankly, we would not be at all surprised if Bailey’s opponent, Kent Vander Kamp, were to face one or more internal investigations in the near future.
That would of course be a grave blunder on Nelson’s part, but he appears to all intents and purposes to see himself beyond the reach of any consequences.
This all makes us wonder, what is it that Shane Nelson is so desperate to protect that he is willing to go to such extreme measures to silence opposition and ensure his protege Captain William Bailey becomes elected?
As for McLaughlin, we find it sadly ironic that a man who has spent most of his life defending the Constitution may have had his own Constitutional rights violated by a Sheriff who himself has sworn to uphold the Constitution.
We hope for his sake that McLaughlin seeks competent legal counsel to protect himself and to hold Nelson and his cronies to account.
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