The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Larry Blanton have been dismissed from a lawsuit claiming wrongdoing from a former inmate.  In November 2011,  inmate Danny Meyers filed the lawsuit, claiming the Sheriff’s Office mistakenly identified him, and transported out of Deschutes County on an outstanding Wasco County arrest warrant.

Sheriff’s Office legal counsel Darryl Nakahira says a lawsuit like this is not a common thing, and it was a costly procedure to investigate the charge:  “We haven't crunched the actual numbers, but this took the time of County Legal counsel; my time as counsel for the Sheriff's Office, and management time for the Sheriff’s Office staff to retrieve the documents from other counties when, in fact we believe, and it was proven that we acted correctly."  Nakahira says they have multiple layers that they use to confirm identification; including fingerprinting and a huge mug shot and information database.

Nakahira went on to say they felt they needed to send out a news release about the lawsuit; because there was an earlier published report on the lawsuit; and the Sheriff’s Office could not comment on it at the time, due to it was an active investigation.