A former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy has pleaded guilty to a charge of official misconduct in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Roger Campbell, 39, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the misdemeanor charge, the Mail Tribune reported. The charge stemmed from evidence uncovered in October 2019 that Campbell had taken sexually explicit photos of himself while in uniform in his patrol car and sent them to an acquaintance.
An Oregon State Police examiner was investigating the woman’s phone in an unrelated case and found the photos of Campbell taken May 5, 2019, according to Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert.
State police subpoenaed the records for Campbell’s phone but detectives found it had been wiped clean. Heckert said the action could have resulted in an evidence tampering charge if Campbell had not pleaded guilty to the misconduct charge.
Heckert said when she contacted the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to notify them of Campbell’s criminal case, she learned he had already signed a stipulated order nullifying his police certificates from the state. He will not be able to work as a law enforcement officer in Oregon again, she said, though it’s not impossible that Campbell could be hired as a law enforcement officer in another state.
Campbell’s attorney, Peter Carini, declined to comment.
Judge Lorenzo Mejia sentenced Campbell to 11 months bench probation, which means he will not be supervised by a probation officer. He will also pay a $1,300 fine rather than doing community service.