Lewd photos surface, Clackamas County deputy resigns
Explicit text messages and photos, links to escort service, late-night encounter all emerge in internal investigation
Brandon Claggett’s 14-year career as a Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy is over partly because of an inappropriate relationship he had with a woman 17 years his junior.
Claggett, 37, resigned his position Oct. 7 after sheriff’s investigators turned a spotlight on the relationship that, according to documents released by the sheriff’s office, included sending sexually explicit photos of his genitals to the woman. He also sent explicit text messages to the woman’s cell phone, investigators said.
The investigation began in early July after the sheriff’s office was told of the relationship. In it, the sheriff’s office uncovered evidence that Claggett met with the woman, offered her rides in his patrol car and sent the explicit messages sometimes while on duty.
An initial criminal investigation had been conducted and submitted to the district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case. The internal investigation ceased when Claggett resigned, but one investigator was confident that Claggett’s actions violated department policy.
“There’s no dispute that the activities that occurred, in my opinion, violate several policies,” Detective John Krummenacker said during the investigation.
All of the information about the relationship is included in a 3-inch-thick stack of papers obtained from the sheriff’s office.
Ride-along in patrol car
According to the investigation, a 20-year-old Sandy woman told the sheriff’s office that she had known Claggett since she was 16 or 17, but their relationship changed during the six to 12 months leading up to the July 2008 investigation.
An examination of the woman’s cell phone showed that between June 18 and July 7 of this year Claggett sent her at least 18 text messages, most of them sexually explicit. At least 12 of those were sent while he was on duty. Two of the woman’s friends attested to being with her when she received some of the messages.
On June 18 of this year Claggett also sent the woman two sexually explicit photos of himself. The sheriff’s forensic examiner was able to match the file names with files found on Claggett’s personal cell phone, and Claggett admitted to sending her the photos. Records indicated that he took at least one of the sexually explicit photos in his patrol car while on duty, though he sent it after work.
Claggett claimed that the woman had requested photos of him and that she had sent sexually explicit text messages to him, as well, but those messages could not be located on either of their cell phones.
Claggett did have photos of the woman on his cell phone. She claimed that when they did ride-alongs he would take her phone and send the photos to himself. Claggett said she sent them to him.
None of the messages or photos in question was found on Claggett’s work-issued cell phone or laptop.
Attempts to reach Brandon Claggett for comment on this news story and the sheriff’s office report were unsuccessful.
Sometime around the beginning of June, the woman went on a ride-along with Claggett. She said she had been on about four or five ride-alongs with him in the three or four years they’d known each other. Claggett was not at that time a part of the sheriff’s ride-along program and he did not file the necessary paperwork for a ride-along.
The woman said Claggett sent her a text message and picked her up from her friend’s house. She said they drove around for about an hour before heading to Camp Namanu, a private camp across from Dodge Park.
This is where their stories diverge. She said it was his idea to go somewhere secluded, and Claggett made sexual advances at her. He said they drove to the location “to flirt” and she propositioned him.
Claggett admitted that his reason for going down to the park was sexual activity, but claims he changed his mind once he got there, having realized that what he was doing was wrong. Both said they left without any sexual activity having occurred.
Potential violations uncovered
In the sheriff’s office investigation, detectives uncovered other instances of potentially inappropriate behavior by Claggett.
In Claggett’s patrol vehicle detectives found a police notebook with phone numbers in it. When investigators researched the numbers, they led to three different escorts named Mahea, Angie and Scarlet and to the MySpace Web page of “Platinum Pleasures,” which the sheriff’s office said “appears to be for an escort prostitution service for the Eugene/Bend area.”
Claggett told detectives he would text back and forth with the escorts sometimes, and sometimes talk about services, but said he had never met up with an escort or picked up a prostitute.
Another Sandy-area woman who came forward said Claggett had sent her text messages asking to see her “boobs.” She said that when she refused, he sent another message that said “something similar to, ‘I know you got them, just show them.’”
Claggett said he did not remember sending those messages, but would not deny that he had.
Another woman said she also received inappropriate text messages from Claggett.
One former Sandy-area woman said that at least three times when she was in high school between 2003 and 2005, Claggett called her friends to find out where underage drinking parties were being held. She said he would show up and harass the boys, but leave the girls alone.
And one woman who Claggett knew received a MySpace message from Claggett that said, ““I sooooo hooked your boyfriend up. You owe me!!!!!!!”
Claggett said he had pulled over the woman’s boyfriend for racing his motorcycle, but let him go with a warning.
mgraham@clackamasreview.com