Mid Columbia Officers Fired for Lying About Driving Drunk

Back in November we learned Stanfield, Oregon, launched a massive investigation of its police force due to allegations made by a terminated officer. We now know why he was terminated.

It all began innocently enough earlier in 2015 when a handful of northeast Oregon peace officers and their wives went bar hopping and then to one of their homes for peach cobbler.

But then Umatilla Sheriff Deputy Al Plum decided to drive home drunk.

He ran off the road and damaged siding.

One of his friends, Stanfield Officer Ryan McBride, arrived on the scene with a truck to pull Plum out of the ditch, and they were spotted by an officer from another department who reported them to McBride's supervisor.

McBride said the discipline from his supervisor was really retaliation for complaints he'd previously made about that supervisor.

An independent investigation determined there was warrant for terminating McBride and Plum for attempting to cover up the drunk driving and damage Plum did to the siding.

The terminations were done in late-summer, early-fall 2015, but the full story only recently emerged.