A longtime Klamath County sheriff’s supervisor who said he faced retaliation after initiating investigations into the sheriff’s two sons and then reporting Sheriff Chris E. Kaber’s attempt to protect them has filed a whistleblower suit against the county, the sheriff’s office and the sheriff.
Capt. Brian Bryson resigned earlier this year after nearly 30 years with the agency, citing ongoing harassment. Bryson is now running for sheriff.
“He was doing his job and doing what he had to do to follow Oregon law, and he was essentially forced out of his lifelong career,” said his attorney Caitlin Mitchell.
Bryson’s suit, filed in federal court in Medford, seeks unspecified damages.
The dispute stemmed from a resolution adopted by the county Board of Commissioners in 2018 that required Kaber to delegate all authority for the supervision and management of his two sons to others, including Bryson. That included prohibiting Kaber from taking any action that affected his sons’ compensation, discipline, work conditions, complaints or internal affairs investigations.
Kaber had been elected sheriff in 2016 and took office the following year. He had previously worked as a detective and supervisor for Oregon State Police, according to his lawyer. He is not seeking re-election.
One of his sons worked patrol for the sheriff’s office and the other was hired as a corrections deputy.
Bryson reported to the county that Kaber was regularly violating the board’s resolution.
In one example cited in the suit, Kaber’s son Erick had been placed under investigation on allegations that he used excessive force against a person in custody.
The suit alleges that the sheriff instructed Bryson, then captain of sheriff’s office operations, “not to dig up unnecessary stuff” against Erick Kaber.
But the sheriff became angry when Bryson referred the investigation to an outside agency, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, according to the suit.
Bryson “held his ground” and tried to ignore the sheriff’s attempts to influence his son’s investigation, according to the suit. Erick Kaber eventually was suspended and ordered to undergo remedial training on deescalation tactics, according to a county report cited in the lawsuit.
In May 2023, the sheriff began pressuring Bryson to promote his other son, Ryan Kaber, from sergeant to lieutenant, telling Bryson that he needed to show his “allegiance to the sheriff’s office,” the suit alleges.
Bryson repeatedly told the sheriff that Ryan Kaber wasn’t eligible for promotion, according to the suit.
The next month, the sheriff informed Bryson that he intended to make Ryan Kaber a detective sergeant, which brings a 4% clothing stipend but no extra salary, the suit says.
Bryson again expressed concern that the sheriff would be violating the county resolution, but the sheriff responded, “Downtown is not going to tell me how to run my office,” according to the suit.
In June 2023, Bryson placed Ryan Kaber on paid leave pending an investigation into an allegation that he used excessive force with his police dog during a patrol stop, according to the suit. Meanwhile, the Oregon Department of Justice was asked to conduct a criminal investigation into Ryan Kaber’s use of force, state records show.
Later that month, the sheriff reinstated Ryan Kaber as a detective sergeant and Bryson reported the sheriff’s actions to county human resources.
A county commissioner also filed a complaint in June 2023 with the state ethics commission, alleging the sheriff violated ethics law by reinstating his son as a detective sergeant. County commissioners also hired a consulting agency that month to conduct an investigation.
Bryson told investigators that the sheriff made several comments to him that made it clear to him that his future with the agency “depended on his having the Sheriff’s back,” according to the investigative report.
On Sept. 21, the outside investigator, Bill C. Carroll, concluded the sheriff violated the county resolution, noting he unilaterally placed Ryan Kaber into a detective sergeant’s role.
The county human resources department also noted that the position wasn’t posted as open for others to seek.
Once human resources questioned the sheriff’s appointment of his son to the detective sergeant’s job, Sheriff Kaber responded that if human resources “cannot give” his son a “clothing allowance,” then the county “can leave that out of any adjustment to his pay” and that his son could “grieve it later if he chooses,” according to Carroll’s investigation.
That month, the county board rescinded its prior resolution involving the sheriff and his sons and instructed Sheriff Kaber that as long as he remained sheriff, his two sons could not work for the sheriff’s office, according to the suit. Yet that ultimatum was later set aside.
Attorney C. Akin Blitz wrote to the county board on behalf of the sheriff last December, defending the sheriff’s appointment of his son to a detective sergeant role as part of the sheriff’s authority. The appointment was not a promotion but a “stop-gap measure,” and Ryan Kaber never claimed the clothing allowance, Blitz wrote.
In an appearance before the state government ethics commission, the sheriff admitted he had moved Ryan Kaber to the detective sergeant job.
Another lawyer for the sheriff, Steve Elzinga, told the ethics commission that the sheriff was acting in the interest of the community’s public safety because of a “gap in experience” in the detective division.
Elzinga wrote to the ethics commission that the sheriff didn’t believe he was violating the county resolution but asked for “a letter of education” if he had made a mistake. The sheriff also asked if a re-delegation of responsibility to Bryson would resolve the matter.
The executive director of the state ethics commission in early May encouraged the commission to make a preliminary finding that the sheriff had violated the state’s conflict of interest and nepotism provisions.
By May 10, the ethics commission, though, dismissed the complaint against the sheriff, state records show.
Bryson in the meantime had gone off work on medical leave in October 2023 after he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety due to the “toxic environment” in the sheriff’s office, according to the suit.
He tried to return to the job in March when he was cleared by his doctor but was told by the human resources director that he was being placed on paid leave pending an undisclosed investigation, according to the suit.
Bryson said he was never told what the investigation was about and didn’t hear from anyone until April 9, when Sheriff Kaber sent him a letter placing him on “modified duty” and assigning him to a non-supervisory forest contract position, a clear demotion, the suit says.
On the day Bryson was supposed to start the new position, the sheriff placed him back on paid leave -- again with no explanation, according to the suit.
The next month, the sheriff alerted Bryson by letter that he would have a new role as project manager of search and rescue, also a demotion, the suit says.
Instead, Bryson resigned on May 15.
“The last couple years of supervising my boss’ children have been exhausting to say the least. I held them accountable for their poor behavior, as well as spoke out against the Sheriff’s violations of policy and unethical behavior. All of this has resulted in ongoing retaliation by Sheriff Kaber, culminating in him placing me on administrative leave for nearly two months without any explanation,” Bryson wrote to the human resources director.
He wrote that he had no choice but to quit.
Sheriff Kaber defended his actions. “I’ve never retaliated against anybody in my life,” he said, including Bryson. “I was nothing but fair to him.”
The county counsel did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Ryan Kaber returned to duty as a detective sergeant from a leave of absence on May 20, state records show. Erick Kaber has been on leave since December.
Sheriff Kaber said another acting captain returned Ryan Kaber to the detective sergeant’s role to help shore up the agency’s detective division.
“I’m his Dad, but I’m also the sheriff and I realize he’s a good leader,” the sheriff said of his son.
-- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.
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