Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputy disciplined for incident at Bend bar

Published 5:15 am Tuesday, July 11, 2023

A Deschutes County Sheriff's Office deputy.

A Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office deputy tried to use his official position to convince a Bend bartender to serve him alcohol after she cut him off, according to disciplinary records.

Then, deputy Kyle K. Pettit urinated on an electrical box outside the bar’s back door, according to the records, which are publicly available online.

Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Garrison finalized disciplinary action against Pettit on May 10, according to Department of Public Safety Standards & Training records. He received a one-day suspension without pay and was removed from the sheriff’s office detective unit and reassigned to the patrol division as a deputy sheriff.

“Generally speaking, we do not comment on personnel action,” Sgt. Jason Wall, the sheriff’s office spokesman, said Monday.

The incident occurred late at night on June 5, 2022, at Southside Pub in Bend. Pettit was off-duty and drinking, records say.

When the bartender refused to serve Pettit any more alcohol, he responded by showing her his official Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office ID and telling her he was a deputy sheriff who was “presently working — all in hopes that she would serve him more alcohol,” records show.

“After being cut off by the bartender, the cook observed Deputy Pettit urinating on an electrical box outside the back door of the establishment,” records show.

Efforts to reach Pettit by phone and email Monday afternoon failed.

The sheriff’s office contracted with outside investigators to review the incident, said Wall, who declined to disclose who reported the incident. Wall also declined to say whether Pettit was ever placed on leave.

Pettit violated six sections of two different sheriff’s office policies, records show. These include rules around ethics, integrity, dishonesty and obtaining rights, privileges or benefits.

The initial disciplinary action recommended for Pettit was a three-day suspension without pay and removing him from the detective’s unit. After reviewing the case, sheriff’s office policy, personnel and training records and meeting with Pettit, Garrison decided to suspend Pettit for a day, as long as he doesn’t violate policy for the next year, records show.

On May 9, The Deschutes County Sheriff Employee’s Association declined to file a grievance around this incident and the resulting discipline, making it final, records show.

Pettit was hired by the sheriff’s office as a reserve deputy in 2016 and became a deputy sheriff in September 2017, online records show. He’s a U.S. Army veteran and was assigned to patrol the La Pine area in 2018, according to the sheriff’s office Facebook page. Online records do not show any other disciplinary history.

He’s not the only sheriff’s office employee who has been accused of unethically using his position in the past year.

In October, the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office accused former sheriff’s detective Ron Brown of allegedly transferring sexual pictures and videos of a man and his girlfriend to his own phone. Brown was investigating the man’s death, District Attorney John Hummel said.

Brown then used his role as a law enforcement official to help the man’s girlfriend, retrieving her belongings from the motel where she was being evicted while telling management he was there on “law enforcement business,” Hummel said.

After calling the woman to the parking lot of a Shari’s Restaurant in south Bend, he directed her to get into his car, where he was allegedly watching pornography , prosecutors say.

Prosecutors charged him with misdemeanor first-degree official misconduct and the unlawful dissemination of an intimate image, according to court records. His case is ongoing.

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