On May 20, 2012, a police officer in Bend, Oregon, stopped 34-year-old Ryan Miller after he drove through a red light. The officer suspected Miller was impaired, and later, at the Deschutes County Jail, sheriff’s deputy Kent Vander Kamp was asked to interview Miller, measure his vital signs, and give him a series of cognition tests. Vander Kamp would later write in a report that he believed Miller was impaired by marijuana.
Miller was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants and reckless driving.
Miller went to trial in Deschutes County Circuit Court on October 3, 2013. Vander Kamp, who was certified as a drug-recognition expert, testified that it was his opinion that Miller was impaired at the time of the arrest. As part of his testimony, Vander Kamp said that his most recent resume, which was submitted into evidence, was accurate.
A sample of Miller’s urine was also sent to the Oregon State Police’s crime laboratory. Available records do not say whether the results were introduced at trial.
On October 4, 2013, the jury acquitted Miller of driving under the influence and convicted him of a lesser charge of careless driving. He received a fine of $220.
Vander Kamp ran for sheriff of Deschutes County in 2024, taking office in early 2025. During the campaign, which began in 2023, his political opponents raised questions about whether he had misstated his past employment and education.
On December 6, 2023, Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) received a complaint about Vander Kamp and opened a formal investigation in 2024.
The complaint said that Vander Kamp had been dishonest in describing his work history in forms he submitted to Deschutes County between 2008 and 2017. According to a later DPSST report on the investigation, Vander Kamp had omitted that he had been a reserve officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and had been terminated for cause from his position as a reserve police officer in La Mesa, a suburb of Los Angeles. One of the issues in La Mesa related to Vander Kamp lying to La Mesa officials about having the proper certification to operate a radar gun.
Separately, Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels had received a complaint in late 2024 that information about Vander Kamp’s educational background found in the county’s official voter’s pamphlet conflicted with Vander Kamp’s testimony at earlier criminal trials. Gunnells opened an investigation, which included reviewing resumes Vander Kamp provided to various law-enforcement agencies and confirming his academic credentials with the listed institutions.
On April 7, 2025, Gunnels released a report on his findings and said that he had placed Vander Kamp on a so-called “Brady list” and would not call him as a witness in a criminal case. These lists, maintained by prosecutors, typically include officials whose credibility has come under review. Its name comes from the United States Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland, which requires the state to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense.
The report said that Vander Kamp had misrepresented his educational background in the resumes he provided to the Oregon State Police (OSP), and that he had testified falsely at criminal trials or hearings about his educational background.
According to Gunnels’s investigation, Vander Kamp received an undergraduate degree from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in business administration from Trident University International.
At Miller’s trial, Vander Kamp had testified to the accuracy of a resume that listed an undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona and a master’s in business administration from the University of Southern California.
Beginning in April 2025 and into the end of June 2025, Gunnels moved to vacate the convictions and dismiss charges against Miller and four other men whose cases were tainted by Vander Kamp’s false statements.
Miller’s conviction was vacated on April 18, 2025, and his charge dismissed on April 22, 2025.
Vander Kamp resigned from office on June 23, 2025, just as his opponents launched a recall effort. The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners appointed Ty Rupert as interim sheriff through 2026.
On July 24, 2025, the board of Public Safety and Standings Training barred Vander Kamp from holding a law-enforcement certification in the state of Oregon for life.
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 11-12-2025
