When Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp was placed on the county’s Brady List, he said he would make an announcement regarding his future at the DSCO by April 22.
This announcement has been delayed until April 23, according to Jason Wall, the DSCO public information officer.
Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels recently placed the embattled sheriff on the Brady List, which is a list of unreliable witnesses prosecutors cannot call to testify in criminal cases.
“We have concerns about his character for truthfulness and are unable to call him as a witness from this point forward,” Gunnels told OPB on April 14.
Van der Kamp contested the investigation in a statement he made later that day.
“It’s not accurate,” van der Kamp told OPB by phone April 18 when questioned about DA Gunnels’ placing him on the Brady List. He declined to resign. “It’s sexy, but it’s not accurate.”
If the sheriff were to resign, the Board of County Commissioners would appoint a replacement, County Clerk Steve Dennison told the Source Weekly in an email.
Per ORS 236.210, the sheriff position would be placed on the next election cycle’s ballot. In this case, it would be on the May 2026 ballot initially and the sheriff would be elected in November 2026.
Dennison also said the County Commission could appoint anybody with the right qualifications, given they meet certain age and residency requirements. He’s unsure if there would be an immediate appointment through a special meeting but said the undersheriff would take the place until the appointment.
Van der Kamp’s trouble began shortly after he announced his campaign for sheriff last fall. A DA prosecutor noticed that the educational information included in van der Kamp’s profile in the Oregon Voters Pamphlet conflicted with the expert witness testimony van der Kamp authenticated under oath numerous times, according to the DA’s investigation.
Van der Kamp also allegedly lied while giving witness testimony on June 12, 2013, when he said he’d had no previous law enforcement experience prior to being hired as a deputy sheriff by the DSCO in 2004. In that same testimony, he repeated that he had received a degree from UA.
During his campaign for sheriff last October, van der Kamp embroiled himself in a legal battle with a sergeant with the DCSO and one of two candidates running for sheriff. Van der Kamp filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against Deschutes County, DCSO, Sheriff Shane Nelson, Undersheriff Paul Garrison, Oregon Public Broadcasting and OPB reporter Emily Cureton Cook to stop the public release of his personnel records from his stint as a reserve officer at the La Mesa Police Department in California from 1995 to 1997, the Source Weekly reported.
The records, which detail an internal investigation of his misconduct and consequential firing, were inadvertently made public in the complaint filed Oct. 9. Included is an email submitted from Undersheriff Paul Garrison to van der Kamp and his attorney, Andrew Mittendorf, on October 2 that contained live links to seven documents — the entirety of the La Mesa personnel records release. You can read the records here.
While at La Mesa Police Department, van der Kamp was accused of using unnecessary force, falsifying records and using a radar gun without certification. Other allegations included lying about his whereabouts and actions while on duty, according to the internal investigation. He also allegedly lied to La Mesa PD about previously volunteering for the Los Angeles Police Department as a reserve officer.
Included in the La Mesa PD investigation is a Jan. 7, 1996, statement made by one of van der Kamp’s superiors: “It appears more and more that Vander Kamp is not willing to do the work of a reserve and is spending all of his time writing tickets, making arrests and conducting himself like an aggressive police officer. The officers on the 1st watch [sic] are very leery of him and do not trust him. I do not as well.”
The La Mesa Police Department concluded its investigation and dismissed Van der Kamp in 1997.
The sheriff recently changed the spelling of his name to the “culturally correct” Dutch way — van der Kamp — yet two distinct spellings of his name appear in the DCSO’s April 14 press release related to van der Kamp’s inclusion in the Brady List. In the statement, van der Kamp expressed that he is “deeply disappointed by the recent decision by District Attorney Steve Gunnells to place me on the Brady list. While I respectfully dispute the reasoning behind this action, I understand the seriousness of the situation and the impact it may have on the Sheriff’s Office and the public’s trust.”
Being added to the Brady List not only prevents van der Kamp from serving as an expert witness, it also allows the District Attorney’s Office to re-open cases including van der Kamp’s testimony since he became a full-time Deschutes deputy in 2008, OPB reported. Charges could potentially be dismissed and convictions thrown out. The DA’s office has found three DUII cases in which prosecutors believe van der Kamp gave false testimony.
“I was resoundingly hired by the public to do a job and to stop the crisis at the Sheriff’s Office,” he told OPB. “And I continue to do the same until we can find a time that’s best for me to transition out.”
Van der Kamp’s annual salary of $211,031 is the second-highest among elected county officials. DA Steve Gunnels earns $250,257; County assessor Scot Langton pulls in $176,214; and the County Clerk Steve Dennison receives $147,005.
When interviewed by OPB on April 14, van der Kamp said he was waiting to respond on April 22, “because we’re trying to get some answers to some questions that we don’t understand.”
This article appears in Source Weekly April 17, 2025.
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On May 22nd DPSST will hold a live committee hearing at 10AM during which a number of Oregon law enforcement officers to include van der Kamp will see a one-time vote, up or down, regarding their certification status.
https://www.youtube.com/@DPSST
van der Kamp could be decertified for a specific period of time or stripped of his Oregon LE credential forever per DPSST’s Professional Standards page on IRIS.
Revoked/Denied Date:
Date Opened:
2/4/2025
Date Closed:
Ineligibility Period:
Years Employed (nearest .25 hour):
Highest Certification:
DPSST takes into consideration a number of factors to include possible manipulation of the compliant process and the degree of determined severity of the allegations. For example, to date the DA has only confirmed three long past DUII cases, none of which the suspect was convicted of, where van der Kamp claimed the two degrees he has came from other than the true issuing institutions. Under Brady Law and doctrine the DA is required to review every criminal case he may have been involved in to include drug cases as van der Kamp was with CODE for three years.
Under Oregon law he cannot be removed from office by DPSST as he is now an elected official and could finish a portion or all of his term. If decertified the determination of how long his decertification would remain in effect, if less than his initial term in office, could see him run for a second term.
In any event his PERS retirement, estimated at anywhere between $35,000 to $40,000 a month with 23 plus years (incorporating his time as Sheriff whatever that may be) is protected regardless of DPSST’s decision. van der Kamp’s mortgage business, registered in Oregon for many years now, is also still open. In short, other than a short period of professional and personal discomfort he won’t lose a very comfortable lifestyle whether he goes or stays.
This was seen with past / disgraced sheriff Greg Brown and Bend PD captain Kevin Sawyer, for example.