A sheriff’s deputy who crashed on body camera lied by omission by initially hiding the fact that he was looking at porn at the time, says the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

“Gosh darn it,” he said on footage after the crash. “Yeah, that f—ing really sucked.”

The internal affairs report from the Office of Professional Standards determined that he lied, was looking at porn on his phone while driving the patrol vehicle, and also failed to wear his seat belt.

Law&Crime is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime. The deputy resigned during the investigation, Cpl. Chanel Martin of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office told Law&Crime in an email.

The crash

His bodycam from the afternoon of Nov. 6, 2024, shows him with his phone out, though it is unclear what it has on. But what is clear is that the yellow air bag bursts out.

He indicated to at least one passerby he was OK. He walked over to another vehicle that apparently got caught up in the crash. Law&Crime is omitting this encounter because it shows the woman, but in it, the deputy is checking on her.

“Hello, ma’am,” the deputy tells the other driver in the video. “Are you OK? I’m so sorry.”

“It’s OK,” she said.

“My brakes locked up,” he said.

She said she was OK.

A now-former Indiana sheriff’s deputy was recently arrested after pretending to be a woman on Facebook in order to harass a schoolteacher he once dated, law enforcement in the Hoosier State says.

Derek Joseph Bogenschutz, 36, stands accused of one count of felony identity deception, according to the Indiana State Police.

The defendant previously worked as a deputy with the Jay County Sheriff’s Office — and also as a part-time resource officer at the elementary school where the woman taught.

It is unclear when, exactly, Bogenschutz stopped working for the sheriff’s office.

An Indiana deputy died after being choked, hit and body-slammed by a training officer in an Ultimate Fighting Championship-style “state-sponsored hazing event,” the deputy’s widow alleges in a new lawsuit.

Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Asson Hacker died in 2023 during Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy (SWILEA) cadet training, which is referred to as “The Big Fight,” according to the lawsuit filed by Hacker’s widow, Kourtney Hacker. The lawsuit, which names The Evansville Police Department, the city, SWILEA and two training instructors, seeks an amount to be determined at trial.

A former sheriff’s deputy from Tennessee who wore reinforced knuckle gloves during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 was sentenced to prison for assaulting officers. He pleaded guilty to two crimes in September and was convicted of five other counts after a trial last year. He was also ordered to pay $32,165 in restitution.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management welcomes Elizabeth Meyer-Shields as the new Deputy State Director, Resources. In her new position, Meyer-Shields will oversee resource and sustainable use programs for 15 million acres of public lands in California.

“I am thrilled to have Liz join our leadership team at the California State Office,” said Acting State Director for BLM California Gordon R. Toevs. “Her expertise and guidance will be critical to fulfilling our mission to manage important natural resources on public lands.”

Meyer-Shields started her federal career in 2009 in the BLM Washington Office as a Presidential Management Fellow in the Division of Decision Support, Planning and NEPA, and in 2011, moved to Sacramento as a Planning and Environmental Coordinator in the California State Office. In 2018, she moved up the hill to the Mother Lode Field Office as field manager. In 2022, Meyer-Shields returned to the California State Office as the Branch Chief for Lands, Planning, Recreation, and Cultural.

Meyer-Shields will oversee programs including wildlife, aquatics, special status species, wild horse and burro, hydrology, ecology, air, range, vegetation management, botany, cultural/paleontological resources, soils, recreation, lands and realty, National Conservation Lands/Wilderness/Wild and Scenic Rivers, land use planning, National Environmental Policy Act compliance, renewable energy (solar and wind), and partnerships.

Meyer-Shields grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, where she fell in love with public lands, hiking, skiing, fishing, and camping.  She attended Oregon State University, where she received a B.S. in Environmental Science and the University of Denver School of Law. In her spare time, Meyer-Shields enjoys watercolor painting and spending time outside with her family.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is alleging the estranged wife of one of her deputies, with whom Willis is accused of having an affair, of interfering with former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case.

In court filings, Willis said a “defective subpoena” seeking to depose her was “conspicuously coordinated with pleadings in the election interference case” the same day and within hours of Joycelyn Wade’s public request to depose Willis as part of the divorce proceedings involving Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade.

“The subpoena for the deposition of District Attorney Willis is being sought in an attempt to harass and damage her professional reputation,” Willis’ lawyer, Cinque Axam, wrote in the court documents. “It is also being sought in an unreasonable manner to annoy, embarrass, and oppress the deponent.

“Defendant Joycelyn Wade has conspired with interested parties in the criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress District Attorney Willis,” documents said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management welcomes Jeremiah Karuzas as the new Deputy State Director, Energy and Minerals. In his new position, Karuzas will oversee project and programs that impact the management of 47 million acres of subsurface mineral estates, which includes oil, gas, and geothermal resources on BLM-managed public lands in California. Karuzas will also oversee hard rock mining for metallic and industrial minerals and programs responsible for managing hazardous materials and abandoned mine lands.

“I am thrilled to have Jeremiah join our BLM California leadership team,” said Gordon R. Toevs, Acting State Director for BLM California. “Jeremiah’s institutional knowledge about natural resources will be critical to managing energy and minerals development on public lands.” 

Karuzas began his permanent federal career more than 20 years ago in Arizona with the U.S. Forest Service and has lived in the Sacramento area since 2007. Karuzas started working at the BLM California State Office in 2014, and like many that have made a career with the BLM, he continues to strive to help fulfill BLM’s multi-use mission. Karuzas also served as a Branch Chief in the California State Office Division of Natural Resources, acting BLM Palm Springs-South Coast Field Manager, and led numerous high-profile projects as a wildlife biologist, project manager, and renewable energy program lead. Karuzas also holds a master’s degree from Binghamton University in New York State.

In his personal time, Karuzas enjoys the outdoors and exploring our amazing public lands.