From left, Michael Christopher Durkan, Anthony Joseph Hansen and Cory Lucinda Skidgel. (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office/Submitted photos)

Three Jefferson County corrections officers made their first court appearance Thursday on charges they caused the death of a county jail inmate.

Deputies Cory Lucinda Skidgel and Michael Christopher Durkan and Cpl. Anthony Joseph Hansen pleaded not guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the death of James Eugene Wippel, 59.

All three were booked Thursday and issued a conditional release from jail.

Wippel, of Portland, died April 26, 2017, at the Jefferson County jail. He’d been arrested two days before on suspicion of heroin and methamphetamine possession and delivery of heroin.

Paramedics were working on him and prepping to take him to the hospital, according to Sheriff Jim Adkins.

The state medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Wippel told Oregon Public Broadcasting last week he bled out following a burst ulcer.

The three cases were presented to a grand jury over two days this month. Thirteen witnesses provided testimony, including a gastroenterologist, law enforcement personnel and the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Wippel.

The case was investigated by the Central Oregon Major Incident Team, led by detectives from the Redmond Police Department and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. It’s being prosecuted by the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office. It’s common practice for the district attorney to ask another jurisdiction to handle the case when law enforcement officers are suspected of a crime.

It’s likely that if the case proceeds to trial, the three cases would be joined into one.

Hansen, of Madras, was hired by the sheriff’s office February 2015 as a corrections deputy.

Skidgel, of Culver, was hired as a corrections deputy in February 2017.

Durkan, of Bend, was hired as a patrol deputy in April 2015. He transferred to corrections in May 2016.

They’re all on paid leave.

Criminally negligent homicide is a Class C felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Since felons lose the right to own a firearm, the defendants would not be allowed to return to police work if found guilty. Adkins said they could return if they’re found not guilty.

“We’ll see how this plays out over the next few months,” he said.

Carroll Gorg, who is married to Wippel’s first cousin and was executor of Wippel’s estate, reached out to journalists after learning of his death in the news.

“I hadn’t heard from him in a long time,” he said. “I wondered why.”

Wippel was an only child and never married. He grew up in Lake Oswego and fell in with the “wrong crowd” in high school. He was “in and out of trouble” ever since, Gorg said.

Oregon’s judicial information database lists 82 separate cases on file for Wippel since 1987, including dozens of felony convictions.

Although Wippel broke the law throughout his life, he was not a violent man, Gorg said.

“It’s really a mystery to me how this could have happened,” Gorg said. “If they did indeed cause his death, they should answer for that. An ordinary person doesn’t get any break. So I don’t think an officer should.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com