The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association voted 28-0 on Monday, Aug. 24, to expel Curry County Sheriff John Ward.
Seven sheriffs did not participate in the vote because of scheduling conflicts. Ward chose not to attend the meeting or offer a defense.
The association’s executive director, Tim Svenson, said in an email that the vote represents only the second time the group has removed one of its members.
Ward held both membership in the sheriffs’ association and a seat on its 36-member board of directors until Monday. The nonprofit supplies training and support to sheriffs across the state and identifies among its objectives “developing and maintaining a public image that will permit the citizens to have confidence in the sheriff’s ability to meet modern police problems.”
Ward, 68, is confronting difficulties on multiple fronts. He is the subject of an FBI inquiry connected to $391,000 in donations that a Brookings-based foundation made to his agency over a span of more than ten years. Ward is alleged to have appropriated certain charitable items for his own benefit, among them a $29,880 travel trailer and a $53,000 storage shed, putting both in his name.
The three-person Curry County Board of Commissioners, which oversees the sheriff’s budget, brought in an outside investigator whose report painted a harsh picture of Ward’s leadership.
That report identified significant shortcomings in Ward’s supervision of a deputy who later left the sheriff’s office for the Gold Beach Police Department and shot two people in separate encounters. The report also pointed to claims that the sheriff’s office deployed uncertified police dogs, exposing the agency to legal liability, and neglected boat safety checks and patrols on the Rogue River that the state had funded.
Curry County passed along an internal review of Ward to the Oregon Department of Justice, which determined in January that none of the 13 accusations against the sheriff met the standard for “prosecutable charges.”
Ward, who had previously declined to respond to questions, has rejected any allegations of misconduct.
In July, Curry County commissioners sent the findings of the county’s independent probe of Ward to the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, the state agency responsible for training and certifying law enforcement officers. The commissioners are asking the department to strip Ward of his law enforcement certification.
Within the tight-knit world of law enforcement leadership, the Monday expulsion vote carries a stigma for Ward. Beyond signaling rebuke from his colleagues, it eliminates his access to association resources, which could have included legal support.
Ward, like all county sheriffs in Oregon, is elected on his own. He secured reelection in 2024 without difficulty after running unopposed in two earlier races. He can continue running his agency without belonging to the sheriffs’ association.
Ward did not return a request for comment.
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