In Portland, Oregon, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation following accusations that a corrections officer bragged about using a Taser gun in a City of Heroes online chat room.
The Justice Center Jail want to know if the same deputy, identified as David B. Thompson, also filed a false police report to cover up the beating of an inmate, according to the Portland Tribune.
Thompson reportedly used a county work computer to play City of Heroes while on the job. In a chat room, he then boasted about the joy he gets hurting people in jail, said Lt. Jason Gates of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
The Portland Tribune reports that the deputy, using the screen name “Trafalgar”, said, “Seeing someone get Tasered is second only to pulling the trigger. That is money – puts a smile on your face.”
In another chat, the deputy reportedly said, “I crushed a dude’s eye socket from repeatedly punching him in it and then I charged him with menacing and harassment (of me). He took a plea to get away from me. He shoulda picked somebody else to try and fight.”
Lt. Jason Gates is appalled by the alleged online comments, stating that the eye socket incident matches a case from 2005. In the initial police report, the deputy claimed the inmate attacked him.
“All we have is public trust. What does that do to our public trust? It destroys it,” said Gates.
The deputy’s “Trafalgar” account accounts for more than 1,700 messages on the City of Heroes site since January. In some posts, he
Nick Budnick of the Portland Tribune said, “The post suggests that the guy gets off on violence and he enjoys Tasering people. Here is a public servant, getting paid with public money, spending a significant amount of his shift playing video games.”
Thompson could be fired and criminally prosecuted if found guilty.
