Integrity. Transparency. Accountability.
Five candidates recommended by the union representing the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office employees spoke about their qualifications for the interim sheriff position at the Elks Lodge in Bend on July 7.
The mood was anything but contentious as the five candidates, selected by the Deschutes County Sheriff Employee’s Association, touched on themes of institutional transparency, rebuilding public trust and — not least of which — avoiding the explosive headlines in local media, which followed former Sheriff Shane Nelson and exiting Sheriff Kent van der Kamp through their tenures. Van der Kamp, will leave the post by July 31. By that time, the Deschutes County commissioners will have appointed an interim sheriff, who will serve until the 2026 election cycle.
[View the entire forum here.]
Four people have applied for the Interim Sheriff position, including Undersheriff Aaron Wells, DCSO Detective and Special Services Commander Ty Rupert and DCSO Detective Lt. James McLaughlin. Those are three of the five candidates shortlisted by the DCSEA. Other recommended candidates include Deron McMaster, a former DCSO Captain and Cory Darling, the Director of Campus Safety and Emergency Management at Central Oregon Community College.
The fourth person who filed with the County is Gabe Burchfiel, a Digital Forensic Detective with DCSO.
Union president Danny Graham, who is also a DCSO Patrol Sargeant, told the Source that the union’s board will rank-vote to recommend a candidate to the Deschutes County commissioners, whose ultimate responsibility it is to pick the interim sheriff.
Throughout the two-hour forum, moderated by Graham, candidates alluded to past allegiances to — and feuds with — Nelson and van der Kamp, whose tenures were marred, if not derailed, by high-profile scandals.
After individual introductions that made mention of career highlights that included military service (Rupert, McMaster and McLaughlin), private sector experience (Rupert and McLaughlin), and a stint as a pastor (Wells), candidates took turns answering Graham’s questions.
Wells, the current undersheriff whom Sheriff Kent van der Kamp picked to join his command staff in January, talked about restoring trust:
“In the past few years, I learned a lot about what we’ll call extreme ownership,” Wells said. “It’s about owning your mistakes and moving forward. I would begin with admitting — yeah, there were some mistakes made. I’m not necessarily saying it’s everyone, but the reality is, our leader made some mistakes. That’s affected us all. I think we have to [admit] that to the public and apologize. We were a part of that decision making.” Wells distanced himself from van der Kamp.
“I don’t think that the Sheriff, in no way, shape or form, represents the agency I work for,” Wells said. “I think it’s an important first message that the other people who work there have been doing the work with integrity and with a high level of efficiency and ability.”
Wells, who spent about 17 years with the Redmond Police Department, where he rose to captain, acknowledged he’s only worked at DCSO for seven months.
“How can you trust me?” Wells said. “I’d say, go ask — go ask the community. Ask my co-workers. Ask my former co-workers. Because it’s hard to say I can promote trust by saying really nice things about myself — your reputation precedes you.”
Rupert answered by evoking the firm-handshake approach to life that his grandparents instilled in him.
“Without trust, we have nothing,” Rupert said. “The people I work with have to trust me.”
The DCSO captain, who joined in 2005, said the agency needed to return to the high bar of trust it enjoyed in 2007, when the public voted to grant DCSO a permanent levy — the first instance in the state, he said.
“That trust has been lost over the years. I don’t want to go into history, you can Google it. Everybody knows it; we were in the news quite often,” Rupert said. “We can’t be in the news quite often. I work with incredible people who do incredible stuff who get tired of being on the news for stuff they didn’t cause. A lot of times, it’s been former command staff that caused it.”
As a present command staffer, Rupert said the agency’s rank-and-file deserves a trusted leader with a clear vision.
“They need a leader where they say, ‘Hey, I trust him, I’m going to go with him,’” he said. “‘Ty Rupert knows what he’s doing. Let’s go.’”
Key components of that internal trust will be fostering a two-way channel of input and foregoing institutional favoritism.
“We have people who have been treated differently, depending on who you are,” he said. “It’s not OK. Everybody needs to be treated equally. …If I mess up, I will hold myself accountable. I will say I messed up.”
Rupert also posited that a reduction in blood pressure prescriptions among staffers, along with fewer spousal separations and divorces, would serve as signs of improved agency morale.
McLaughlin, a DCSO detective lieutenant, said DCSO can alleviate the public’s distrust by heightening its engagement with the media.
“I have watched the public’s trust be built up, then erode, then built back up, then erode again.” McLaughlin said, adding that the restoration was owed to the integrity of the rank-and-file employees, including patrollers, corrections officers, investigators and sworn and non-sworn staffers.
“We cannot have restoration without contrition — senior leader contrition,” McLaughlin said. “That means meeting with some of you fine folks in the media, where we have one-on-one interviews where I beg you to ask me hard questions. I want hardballs so we can have some contrition so I can join the ranks of those building public trust and keeping it.”
Addressing one of Graham’s questions that dealt with recent mistakes, McMaster didn’t hesitate to speak about his past support of Sheriff Nelson.
In 2015, McMaster was promoted to captain when Nelson became interim sheriff and subsequently won the 2016 election. Yet McMaster’s run at the DCSO was cut short when he resigned, claiming in a lawsuit that Nelson concealed evidence during an internal investigation and retaliated against McMaster after he spoke out, the Source reported in July 2023. McMaster received a $265,000 settlement from DCSO in September 2024.
“At the time, I was encouraged by the things [Nelson] said. I thought he was going to turn out to be a good sheriff,” McMaster said, adding that he contributed to his 2016 campaign. “And, as you all know, that turned out to be a huge mistake. I didn’t see it coming, and I didn’t realize it until things got really bad.”
Balancing the DCSO operating budget was also a primary concern.
McMaster acknowledged his near four-year absence from DSCO, yet he cited his experience overseeing the budgets of the jail and the detective division for two years each, including general budget conversations, particularly with the county. While not having access to all past budget information, McMaster alluded to a looming budget crisis in the coming years, promising to huddle with DCSO leadership and staff to find solutions.
Darling also described his budget history, which includes the Sunriver Police Department and COCC’s, as conservative. He said he’d funnel any savings back to personnel by bolstering wellness programs, which has a trickle-down effect to the community.
Moderator Graham also asked candidates whether they intend to run for the sheriff position in the 2026 election cycle. Rupert said he would run only if he deemed his stint as interim sheriff a success — and he felt supported by personnel. Darling said he has no interest in being a politician. McMaster was unclear on whether the interim sheriff is allowed to campaign for sheriff (they are) but would consider running to continue improving the agency he said he loves. Wells declined to answer directly, saying he would be focused entirely on interim sheriff, if appointed.
McLaughlin said full-throatily that he intends to run.
“Let’s be clear, I will be running in the 2026 Special Election. I’ll get that out there right now. It’s not ‘if I do really good,’ McLaughlin said. “I already made that determination long before I decided to throw my hat in the ring for interim sheriff.
“But the problems we face, and the professionalism and proficiency of the men and women in this room and the people they serve demand someone who says, ‘I have a thousand-day vision, not a hundred-day vision,’ McLaughlin said. “I am tired of people sprinting to do something to look good in the moment because there is an election coming. I want longevity, I want to make a generational change.”
This article appears in Source Weekly July 3, 2025.
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