QuickTake:

Dylan Ford is now on unpaid leave from his sheriff's office job, which involves court security and transports of people in custody.

This story has been updated with information from a criminal complaint filed in federal court and a comment from Sheriff Carl Wilkerson.

A Lane County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been arrested and placed on unpaid leave as part of an investigation into an alleged “inappropriate online relationship with a minor outside of the country,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Wednesday, July 29.

Dylan Ford is suspected of attempted enticement of a minor, attempted sexual exploitation of children and attempted receipt of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

Ford has been employed for about 7½ years with the sheriff’s office, was placed on leave Tuesday, pending the conclusion of the criminal investigation, sheriff’s office spokesperson Sgt. Levi McKenny said.

McKenny described Ford as a corrections-certified employee whose duties involved court security and in-custody transports.

Ford was arrested Tuesday by “outside agency investigators,” with no other details released by the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office received a report about an alleged inappropriate relationship involving Ford about a month earlier, on June 26, and “immediately contacted an outside agency so that an independent investigation could be conducted into the allegation,” the sheriff’s office said.

An FBI affidavit filed in federal court describes the investigation starting “on or around” June 30, when the Linn County Sheriff’s Office received from the Lane County Sheriff’s Office to investigate Ford.

FBI investigators, contacted because a girl alleged to have been victimized by Ford lives outside the United States, obtained a federal search warrant and Tuesday, July 28, “searched Ford’s cell phone while he was at work,” according to the affidavit from an FBI special agent whose name is redacted in the court document.

“Investigators located numerous conversations with self-described minors as young as 14 years old. In those conversations, Ford repeatedly requests and receives sexually explicit material from the minors,” the affidavit states.

FBI agents found the Telegram application on Ford’s phone “consistent” with how an alleged minor victim described to a witness how she was communicating with Ford. Also in Ford’s phone, investigators found two videos “which appeared to be screen recordings of pubescent minors engaged in sexual activity,” the affidavit states.

Before authorities began investigating Ford, a girl from outside the United States reached out online to contact a woman later identified as a co-worker of Ford’s.

The woman is described as seeing the message June 28 and beginning to communicate with the girl, who shared an image sent to her by the man the girl had been communicating with on Telegram. The woman “immediately recognized the man depicted in the photograph” as Ford, with whom she had “worked closely with” at the sheriff’s office.

The girl, who told the woman she is younger than 15 years old, also shared a voice recording she said she had received from her “boyfriend,” according to the affidavit, which the woman said she believed matched Ford’s voice.

The girl shared that she sends the man nude images and that she had disclosed her age to the man, who told her he planned to marry her when she turned 18, the affidavit states.

In a statement Wednesday, Sheriff Carl Wilkerson said: “I am very sad and disgusted by this conduct, but I am committed to the protection of our community and to holding all offenders accountable. He has been placed on unpaid admin leave and we will continue to cooperate with investigators.”

Anyone with information about the investigation into Ford may call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, the sheriff’s office said.