Ex-Oregon youth prison warden indicted
Friday, June 27, 2008 10:08 AM PDT
LA GRANDE (AP) — An indictment unsealed this week accuses the former superintendent of a youth detention center near La Grande of stealing state property and tampering with witnesses.
Darrin Humphreys, 43, of Bend, was arraigned Thursday on more than two dozen counts of theft, official misconduct and other charges. The most serious of the charges are seven counts of first-degree theft, which each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $125,000 in fines. Humphreys did not enter a plea, and he was neither held in custody nor required to post bail. Humphreys resigned as superintendent of the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn last June, shortly after the Oregon State Police started investigating his activities while running RiverBend, a 50-bed detention center in Eastern Oregon. He was the subject of a yearlong public corruption investigation, and documents obtained by The Oregonian newspaper earlier this year alleged that Humphreys arranged a cash kickback from a contractor, claimed more than $12,000 in unearned mileage reimbursements and tried get potential whistle-blowers fired.
