BEND, OR -- The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has released details of the nearly two-year internal investigation into a former Lieutenant, which outlines a pattern of belittling behavior by the supervisor over several years. Lt. Tim Leak was put on paid administrative leave in May 2016, after the investigation into Captain Scott Beard turned up allegations that the two repeatedly bullied subordinates and instructed detectives not to accurately record overtime hours, among other policy violations.
In documents obtained by KBND News, one co-worker describes Leak as "sarcastic, cynical and belittling, without leadership skills. Lt. Leak is not open to input from other staff, and has poor leadership skills." Another said, "both Beard and Lt. Leak did not treat detectives well. Both would ridicule detectives in front of co-workers or other people." They added, "When Lt. Leak was not around Beard, he would be a bully to detectives. Lt. Leak was arrogant and subordinates did not want to talk to him." Similar observations were echoed by a number of other staff.
Beard is now in prison for embezzling from the Sheriff’s Office. Captain Paul Garrison says there’s no evidence Leak was involved in criminal activity, but his pattern of behavior was concerning, "The Sheriff, ultimately, and subsequently myself, as one of the Captains within the agency and my two counterparts, we have a responsibility to the people we work with to provide a healthy environment for them to work within. Because, obviously, a healthy employee is an effective employee; and there were challenges with that." He tells KBND News Leak's actions were not in line with the mission and values of the Sheriff’s Office, "We have an obligation to the citizens to look after that agency that they spend their hard-earned tax dollars for. We are here to ensure that we are putting the best agency out there to protect them and serve them as effectively as we can. Regardless of how many of these we have, that is still going to be the line in the sand that we adhere to."