FBI affidavit details allegations of deputy’s inappropriate online relationship with minor

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 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, 29, 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.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon stated the charges listed in the complaint are for “actual and attempted” crimes.

Ford has been employed for about 7½ years with the sheriff’s office. He 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 the FBI.

After a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Amy Potter ordered Ford to remain in detention pending a trial.

“To be very clear, in terms of the position he held … I do think we expect a little bit more,” Potter said, adding that there is “no question” that the allegations against Ford involve “repeated conduct.”

Potter considered allowing Ford to be released on electronic home monitoring to live with his mother, who was present in the courtroom, and on a condition that he not be allowed to access devices capable of going online. But she noted that the home is near elementary schools and “a little over a mile away” from a middle school.

“Given the facts of this case, I cannot find he is not a danger to the community,” Potter said.

The sheriff’s office said it 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.”

Affidavit outlines the case

An FBI affidavit filed in federal court describes the investigation starting “on or around” June 30, when the Linn County Sheriff’s Office received a request 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 on 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 Messenger app 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.

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

The girl had performed a reverse-image search online after receiving a photo purportedly of the man she had been communicating with. The image matched that of the Facebook profile picture of the woman’s husband.

The woman is described as seeing the girl’s message June 28. The girl then shared a second image with the woman, 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, 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.

At Wednesday’s initial court appearance for Ford, Assistant U.S. Attorney William McLaren argued for his continued detention.

McLaren noted that in addition to an image recognized by Ford’s colleague, Ford is also alleged to have sent the girl an image taken from a different colleague’s social media profile. The affidavit makes clear that the colleague whose image was shared by Ford is the husband of the woman the girl reached out to online.

“It’s only by way of a minor wondering if she was being catfished that we even know about this,” McLaren said, arguing that Ford’s use of the false representation and “disappearing photos” showed his efforts to avoid detection.

McLaren said prosecutors had yet to identify other potential victims beyond the one girl who reached out online. She lives in southeast Asia, McLaren said.

Whether Ford can be trusted to follow conditions for release should be considered alongside “what we know he has done and what he can do,” McLaren said.

“What he can do is hide this from an entire law enforcement community and from his family, quite apparently,” McLaren said.

In a statement Wednesday, Lane County 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.