Lewd photos surface, Clackamas County deputy resigns

Explicit text messages and photos, links to escort service, late-night encounter all emerge in internal investigation

By Matthew Graham

The Clackamas Review, Oct 21, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (45 Reader comments)

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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.