Deputy Caught Faking Jail Checks in Multnomah County Sheriff’s Sting

Another person has been held accountable in Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell’s crackdown on jail deputies.

On Friday, ex-sheriff’s deputy Johnathan Lee Taylor, 38, pleaded guilty to a count of second-degree official misconduct for falsely logging security and welfare checks while on duty.

Multnomah County Jail Deputy Pleads Guilty To Falsifying Records

In the third case involving deputies who shirk their responsibility to patrol jail dorms regularly at the county’s detention centers, Taylor was charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to six months probation.

He is, however, required to surrender his law enforcement certification under the terms of a plea deal.

In the 31-count indictment filed publicly the day before Taylor pleaded guilty, he was accused of falsifying the logbook on at least nine separate days in November and December after skipping his rounds on multiple occasions on some days.

Another employee noticed Taylor’s dereliction of duty and reported him to Internal Affairs. Investigators who reviewed security cameras verified the allegations. No inmates died on Taylor’s watch.

Taylor is the third former sheriff’s deputy to be sentenced. In two other cases heard last month, deputies were handed similar sentences for skipping twice-an-hour rounds during which a person in custody had died by suicide or drug overdose.

Jail deaths increased in 2022 and 2023, with 10 fatalities total, but last year, only one person died in a jail. In January this year, a man died in prison, and in February, an inmate died in a hospital shortly after a judge had ordered his release, both due to undisclosed circumstances.

Sheriff Morrisey O’Donnell said in a statement, “The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has zero tolerance for misconduct of any kind.”