Shane Nelson promised to enforce his office’s conduct code when he became Deschutes County sheriff in 2015, and his tough approach has led to the departure of more than a dozen employees accused of various misconduct.

One of these is Tim Leak, a former sheriff’s lieutenant considered by many in the office to have been the right-hand man and enabler of disgraced former captain Scott Beard, who was convicted on embezzling $200,000 from the office. Leak, who reported to Beard, supervised the sheriff’s detectives.

In February, Leak accepted a severance package and retirement from the sheriff’s office in exchange for dropping the lawsuit he planned to file alleging he was unfairly scrutinized because of his association with Beard. Leak walked away from a 25-year career with $278,000 in severance and salary, plus full retirement benefits. He even got to keep his duty weapon and his badge.

Representatives of the sheriff’s office, which is facing three other lawsuits by former employees, say the office halted the Leak investigation — before findings were made — out of concern for another costly legal battle.

But Leak, in his first public comments, said it was because they had nothing on him.

“Everything that’s been reported about me to this point has made me look horrible,” he told The Bulletin. “If I’m such a bad guy, why didn’t they fire me right away? Why did Shane Nelson let me keep my badge? Why was I on leave for two years?”

Connection with Beard

Nelson’s office recently complied with a Bulletin request to produce documents related to the Leak investigation. Several hundred pages of interview transcripts between the sheriff’s independent investigators and Leak’s former subordinates show Leak wasn’t liked or respected by many of those below him.

Subordinates in the detective division say Leak was abrasive, unprofessional, a “know-it-all” and a “yes man” with a “dry, condescending sense of humor.” They called him a “puppet” who “sucks as a leader.”

Further, he’s said to have “done nothing” as Beard bullied and ridiculed staff, according to the investigation.

As the top two employees in the detective division, Leak and Beard are described as having an unusually close relationship for a captain and a lieutenant. Behind his back, Leak was called “Jeff” to Beard’s “Mutt,” and “Mama” to his “Papa,” according to independent investigator John Bocciolatt, the retired Portland police officer who also briefly replaced Beard as captain.

Beard’s career imploded several months after Nelson became sheriff in July 2015. Beard had been promoted three times by Nelson’s predecessor, Larry Blanton, and was informally known as Blanton’s second-in-command, according to Leak.

But Beard was found to have skimmed funds intended for the regional drug task force he headed, while hiding drug and gambling addictions, and infidelity. Beard’s schemes unraveled fast with new leadership at the sheriff’s office.

Days after Beard’s crimes came to light, the FBI interviewed Leak as part of its investigation into Beard. Leak says they never followed up with him.

“I had nothing to do with what Scott was doing,” Leak said, adding that Beard was adept at hiding his crimes from everyone. “Scott is Scott,” Leak said. “And I’m me.”

Action against Leak

But after Beard was fired in September 2015, sheriff’s employees started coming forward with allegations about Leak, investigation documents show.

In response to those complaints, a supervisor in March 2015 asked Leak to join him on a drive to the top of Pilot Butte, where they discussed concerns about Leak’s leadership. He was given a verbal reprimand and told Nelson was moving him to patrol, Leak said.

This is the point where the scrutiny on his relationship with Beard should have ended, Leak said.

“If that’s what they were hearing about me, then, at least I can understand that,” he said.

Leak’s personnel file, included in the investigation report, mentions just one disciplinary action taken against him, in the early 2000s.

But in May 2016, he was notified he was being put on paid administrative leave for an undisclosed policy violation. He learned one month later it was for an “inappropriate radio comment.”

That detail was published by media outlets. Nelson told The Bulletin at the time that the Leak investigation was separate from the investigation of Beard. Leak doubts this, citing a statement read to each interview subject: “This is a Standards of Conduct investigation regarding Scott Beard and Tim Leak. It has been alleged that Captain Beard embezzled thousands of dollars from the Sheriff’s Office and Tim Leak was very closely associated with Beard at the time.”

Leak said the radio comment in question involved him telling a deputy to not go out on an important call. He said it was a misunderstanding that he and the deputy cleared up once they moved their conversation to a private channel.

He said he was never asked about the radio comment in any of his interviews, convincing him the matter was dropped from the investigation. It’s also further evidence to Leak that Nelson was conducting a “witch hunt” against him and digging deep to find anything that would stick, Leak said.

Paid leave is a lot like house arrest, Leak said. Every weekday morning beginning in May 2016, he was required to call at 8 a.m. sharp to check in with his captain. Then, for the rest of the business day, he sat around his house, mostly.

“I thought a lot,” he said. “I watched a lot of TV.”

Lengthy investigation

According to representatives of the sheriff’s office, one reason the investigation took so long is that Bocciolatt stepped aside after four months due to health reasons. But before leaving he was able to conduct interviews with the sheriff’s office employees. Notices were sent to Leak informing him of further allegations. Then Tim Moore, another retired Portland police officer, took over as independent investigator.

Moore was tasked with interviewing Leak about allegations made by people Moore hadn’t talked to, which complicated the investigation. More significant to the timeline is the fact that Moore was already under contract with the sheriff’s office to investigate six other personnel matters, according to Darryl Nakahira, attorney for the sheriff’s office.

Nelson’s promises to deal with bad actors prompted a number of employees to come forward with complaints. The sheriff has taken those complaints seriously and enforced the office’s conduct code to the letter of the law, Nakahira said.

“There are very strict due-process requirements for employees, and if we don’t follow them we get sued. And that’s not a good use of taxpayer’s money,” he said. “The sheriff can’t just terminate somebody for whatever reason.”

One of the detectives interviewed by Bocciolatt said Beard and Leak maintained a culture of fear in their division, according to interview transcripts.

“If Leak or Beard heard you were discussing internal issues regarding detectives, whether it was positive, middle of the road or negative, you would catch a rash from Leak or Beard,” Bocciolatt wrote, paraphrasing the detective. “Beard and Lt. Leak would say, ‘If you don’t like it you can go back to the (expletive) road (patrol). … That came out of Leak’s mouth on a daily basis. He adopted that from Scott.”

That detective, whose name was redacted, was one of more than a dozen employees equal to, or below, Leak in rank interviewed in the investigation. All had negative things to say about Leak.

During his interviews, Moore read to Leak what each detective said about him, one by one. By the end of his third day of this, Leak was clearly annoyed.

“You’re asking me to blindly answer a comment without providing me any follow-up information,” Leak said in the investigation. “These are just vague opinions; they’re statements with no supporting detail, no supporting documentation.”

Sitting alongside his attorney, Katherine Tank, whom he retained shortly after being placed on leave, Leak told Moore they felt the decision had already been made and the investigation was a formality.

Leak’s retirement

Leak’s retirement was official Feb. 28. Nelson sent a press release announcing the deal with Leak and calling it a “business decision.” He took a parting shot at his former lieutenant: “People who do not fall in line with the Mission and Values of this office will not work here.”

Reached Thursday, Nelson said he had no choice but to seriously investigate Leak, given the number of complaints alleging a consistent pattern of misconduct that came to him from Leak’s subordinates.

“I still feel strongly about the allegations against Leak,” Nelson said Thursday. “And the fact is, they’re still in dispute and unresolved.”

Leak, 51, said this week he isn’t sure what his next step in life will be, but he’s certain it won’t involve police work. “I’ve had enough,” he said.

Leak said he and Beard never socialized together or saw each other outside of work.

“People assume that because I was around him a lot, that I should have known what was going on,” Leak said. “Well, the same could be said about a lot of people at that agency. I didn’t see more than anybody else did.”

He said only one person from his entire career at the sheriff’s office has bothered to call him.

He told Moore the stress related to the investigation was affecting his physical and mental health.

“I think what disappointed me the most was how my supposed friends abandoned me during this time without ever asking me what was going on or how I was doing,” he said. “They all made the assumption that I was just like Scott Beard.”

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