A report released Friday by the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office says that Sheriff Kent van der Kamp misrepresented his educational history while under oath, citing this as the reason the newly elected sheriff has been barred from providing court testimony.

“After a comprehensive investigation by our office, it was determined that Sheriff Kent van der Kamp failed to adhere to ethical and legal standards required of law enforcement officers,” District Attorney Steve Gunnels stated in the report.

“While serving as an expert witness in DUII prosecutions, (he) testified falsely about his educational background…This misrepresentation directly compromised his reliability as an expert in multiple cases.”

The report also says van der Kamp supplied false documents to Oregon State Police, namely resumes, and lists three criminal cases in which van der Kamp falsely testified about his education. As a result of these findings, van der Kamp was placed on the office’s Brady list on April 8.

A Brady list is a record kept by district attorney’s offices of law enforcement officers who have a track record of lying or who cannot be relied on for truthful testimony. The document is not legally binding, and being placed on a Brady list does not suggest criminal charges. In Deschutes County, there are eight officers on the Brady list, including van der Kamp.

District attorney’s office investigation

The district attorney’s office investigation took place over the course of several months, including periods both before and after the Nov. 5 election. According to the report, the office was first alerted to the situation when one of its prosecutors pointed out a discrepancy between the way van der Kamp represented his education in the Oregon Voter’s Pamphlet and statements made as a witness in criminal trials.

In the voter’s pamphlet, van der Kamp said he graduated from Trident University for his undergraduate degree and that he obtained a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix. However, transcripts included in the report show he testified that he had graduated from the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona.

To confirm if what van der Kamp said on the stand was accurate, the district attorney’s office cross-referenced records submitted to Oregon State Police and independently verified with both the University of California and the University of Arizona that he had not attended either college.

Van der Kamp said he would have more details on Tuesday, but attributed the error to a graphic designer he hired through the gig website Fiverr.

“Both of those CVs were made by a graphic designer. The lady that was doing it with Fiverr made some errors and I did make the mistake of reading that in court. You’ll see my high school is on the campus of one of those universities, and I think that’s why there was confusion,” van der Kamp told The Bulletin Friday. “In 2017, those were updated and corrected.”

The resume van der Kamp submitted to Oregon State Police in 2018, which lists Trident University and University of Phoenix, appears to be accurate, according to the district attorney’s office report.

Other evidence of dishonesty

This is not the first time van der Kamp has been caught in a lie.

Ahead of the election, van der Kamp was scrutinized both publicly and professionally for omitting his previous law enforcement experience with the La Mesa Police Department in La Mesa, California from his application to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in 2004. It later came to light that he had lied about obtaining a speed gun certification while employed as a volunteer reserve officer there, among other dishonesty allegations.

The state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Oregon’s law enforcement certification and regulatory agency, is still investigating whether van der Kamp violated the state agency’s “moral fitness standards” as a result of what happened in La Mesa. If van der Kamp is found to have violated standards, it is possible that his law enforcement certifications could be revoked.

Van der Kamp also told The Bulletin he and his lawyer were unaware van der Kamp might be placed on the Brady list, speculating the decision was related to the La Mesa incident. However, the report released on Friday indicates Gunnels met with van der Kamp’s attorney and contacted him several times in an effort to obtain proof of van der Kamp’s educational history.

“After reviewing all available evidence, it became indisputably clear that when he testified as an expert witness, then Deputy Sheriff Kent van der Kamp provided false testimony and submitted contradictory and false records to his education and background between approximately 2013 and 2018,” Gunnels states in the report. “If we were in error in that belief, we gave the Sheriff ample opportunity to provide evidence that we were wrong.”

Van der Kamp is a 20-year veteran of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office who defeated another longtime sheriff’s office employee, Capt. William Bailey, in a hotly contested election in November. Van der Kamp campaigned and won on a platform of increased transparency and accountability within the sheriff’s office following a decade of legal challenges and controversies.