Who is Tearing What Apart?

[*****EDIT Due to conflicting information we have in fairness removed the paragraph from this article stating that Lieutenant Joe DeLuca was the individual who said that DCSO Follies should be denounced during a recent supervisor meeting.]

This article is a little off our beaten path; however when faced with a complete and total lack of self-awareness on the part of certain members of the Sheriff’s Office leadership that borders on delusion… Well we simply couldn’t let it slide.

You see, it has come to our attention that some members of the Sheriff’s Office leadership team are publicly claiming that we at DSCO Follies are “tearing apart the agency”

In fact, we learned a senior member of the leadership actually had the temerity to stand up during a recent supervisor meeting and demand folks denounce DCSO Follies.

You’d be excused for thinking this happened in North Korea.

But where to even begin addressing the absurdity that it is DSCO Follies tearing apart the Sheriff’s Office?

Perhaps it is by first pointing out that men such as Shane Nelson, William Bailey, Paul Garrison and Joe DeLuca are not in fact “the agency” — Much as their arrogance and inflated sense of self-importance may lead them to believe.

The reality is the Sheriff’s Office transcends these small men. The agency stood long before they darkened its threshold, and it will most assuredly stand taller and stronger after they are gone.

At DCSO Follies we do our level best to make public, what is in our opinion, Shane Nelson and his leadership team’s appallingly corrupt behavior.

Behavior they have successfully concealed and suppressed under the boot of repression and reprisal.

That said, we will hold, and have held, anyone at the Sheriff’s Office to account whom engages in behavior unbecoming that of a public servant.

We are sure Nelson and his cronies don’t like what is happening to them. They have been the big fish in a very small pond for so long that to be powerless to control the revelations being made about them must be completely alien and disorienting to them. It would explain their lashing out in all directions.

We think these men have gotten away with behaving poorly for so long that they have wholeheartedly come to believe they can do no wrong and actually stand in the right. To them the ends justifies the means.

We’d call that delusional.

After years of “getting away with it”, it seems they believe the rules and norms are meant for others and not them. Crossing a line is not seen as a transgression but more like what they are owed. They believe they have the right to skip or redraw the lines. To our minds, each year their behavior becomes more blatant, more extreme and more unethical.

So who is it that is tearing apart the Sheriff’s Office?

To answer that, let us remind you of the following:

It is not we who intimidate, target and bully subordinates for simply expressing opinions counter to our authoritarian orthodoxy.

It is not we who weaponize internal investigations against our own employees by retaining “bought and paid for” outside investigators in order to persecute those who have slighted us or whom we wish to silence, make an example of or simply get rid of.

It’s not we who use these same investigators to bury and “sweep” legitimate complaints and grievances against those we consider “our own” or with whom we wish to gain favor.

It is not we who flagrantly infringe upon employees’ Constitutional Rights by warning them to “watch out” or “stay in line” for simply participating in the democratic process on their own free time.

It is not we who regularly promote or give plum assignments to our favored colleagues over more deserving and qualified employees.

It is not we who waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money paying for legal expenses, court settlements and jury awards for the many lawsuits brought against us by our own employees.

It is not we who waste more millions of dollars of tax payer money on inept, frivolous and reckless spending to the point that property taxes had to be raised to the maximum allowed on the backs of the citizens of Deschutes County.

It is not we, who hired an outside law firm at $750/hr to file a frivolous lawsuit against a city in California with the simple goal of digging up dirt on an employee who happens to be running for the Office of Sheriff against our chosen candidate. This despite the fact that the City had already provided the nearly 30 year old records they had on hand to the Sheriff’s Office

It is not we who collaborate and align with dubious outside forces in the furtherance of our goals to maliciously malign and disqualify a candidate for office running against our own preferred candidate.

Finally, it is not we who arrogantly believe in and practice with impunity the hypocrisy of “Rules for thee, but not for me”

No, it is not DCSO Follies who is tearing the Sheriff’s Office apart. If anyone is tearing it apart it is those members of the Sheriff’s Office leadership who subscribe to and are a part of the diseased and immoral “power and control” culture pervading the highest levels of the agency.

If there is anything DCSO Follies may be accused of “tearing apart,” it is the cosy “good old boys club” along with its “power and control” culture that has for too long been ascendant at the Sheriff’s Office.

For this we make absolutely no apology. To our minds the sooner it is brought to its knees and cast aside the better.

DCSO Follies is not about an election or a particular candidate for office. It never has been. It is about exposing unethical, corrupt and incompetent behavior by senior public servants at the Sheriff’s Office.

To our readers we say: Rest assured we will continue to do exactly this after the upcoming election whether it is a Bailey or a Vander Kamp administration that is in power.

If either of these men choose to continue the legacy and culture of their predecessor then they can rest assured we will hold them to account just as Nelson and his administration have and will continue to be held to account — Of this you can be certain.

REFERENCES

Below are just a few of the stories that we have covered in the past number of months detailing the unethical and incompetent behavior by Sheriff’s Office leadership.

In each of our stories we do our level best to document and corroborate the facts often referring to court documents, media references, our sources within the Sheriff’s Office and official Sheriff’s documents.

• NEWSFLASH: SHERIFF NELSON FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CITY OF LA MESA, CA
• Tort Claim Filed by Sergeant James McLaughlin
• The Targeting of Sergeant James McLaughlin
• The Persecution of Sergeant Jay Minton
• The Interrogation of Deputy Matt Palmer
• Crystal Jansen v. Shane Nelson
• McMaster v. Nelson et al. — Fruit of a Poisoned Tree (Pt. 1)
• Sheriff’s Office Spending Goes to 11!
• Rules for Thee, but not for Me?
• Is Someone Telling Pinocchios
• Who Controls The Sheriff’s Office Facebook Page?
• The BBQ Boys
• How About Some Grease with that Patrol Car?
• The Astonishing Tale of Kevin Dahlgren