Bend PD lieutenant resigns amid sex scandal
A former Bend police lieutenant who served as the agency’s public information officer for over a year has resigned after an investigation found he had sexual contact with four women while on duty, officials confirmed Tuesday.
A nearly 70-page report provided upon request by city officials to NewsChannel 21 said Lt. Chris Carney had sex or made sexual contact with three city employees and a member of the media.
Carney, who is married, was placed on administrative leave back in October.
The investigation said Carney acknowledged having sex on and off duty, in the police department storage room, in the women’s restroom, at the department’s east substation, in his office and in his patrol car in areas open to the public, which is a crime.
The report, which names none of the four women, says Carney violated 14 Bend Police Department policies. It also says Carney was untruthful and intentionally deceptive during the interviews with department detectives.
Bend Police Chief Jeff Sale talked to NewsChannel 21 Tuesday about what led to the investigation.
“It basically came to me as, ‘Here’s this rumor going around the police department,'” Sale said. “And I said, ‘Okay, we are going to take a look, we’re going tosee what’s going on,'” Sale said.
“And after we took a preliminary look and said, ‘Okay, we are going to do a full-on investigation, to figure out what’s going on here.’ We just need to make sure we’ve got the appropriate values in place organizationally, to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” the police chief added.
On Tuesday, NewsChannel 21 contacted Carney, who had been with the department for 22 years, and he said: “Some of these cases were just sexual contact. That could mean just touching, not actually having sex.”
Carney also told us he has written letters of apology to the co-workers. He told investigators he had sex on duty dating back to 1986.
No one from NewsChannel 21 was interviewed by police.
Here is the full police report provided to NewsChannel 21, with names and identifying info removed by the police department (Adobe Acrobat required).
