By Rick Bella, The Oregonian, Wednesday, February 08, 2012
A committee of law-enforcement professionals will consider whether to recommend revoking state certification for a former Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy who has admitted his struggle with addiction to painkillers.
The state Police Policy Committee will weigh the case against former Deputy Matt A. Harikian, who resigned last year during an internal investigation into abuse of prescription medications.
The board will meet Feb. 16 in Salem and forward its recommendations to the State Board on Public Safety Standards and Training. If the board revokes Harikian’s certification, he will not be able to work in Oregon law enforcement again.
According to state records, Harikian, 35, began as a West Linn Police Department reserve in 1997 and was hired as an officer two years later. In 2003, he joined the Oregon City Police Department and became a Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy in 2005. He resigned in July 2011.
In 2007, a Clackamas County grand jury declined to indict Harikian after he and a fellow deputy returned fire in a standoff with a mentally ill Oak Grove woman. The woman, Tonya Irene Yut, 39, shot in their direction before fatally shooting herself. An autopsy indicated that Yut was struck by three bullets, one from a deputy’s gun and two from her own. She fired the fatal shot.
In a letter to state investigators, Harikian said, “I admit that I struggle with an addiction to prescription medications, an addiction that I will have to live with the rest of my life…I do not have the intention of returning to police work.”
Why be on duty if you are unfit???
I was in a relationship with Tonya Yut (mentioned in this article) at the time of her death. When her mother, Judy, asked for a copy of the coroner’s report, Clackamas County refused to give one to her. Based on information from neighbors who witnessed the shooting at her home, she fired one shot in the direction of the deputies – and they returned fire. None of those neighbors said that Tonya ever fired the weapon at herself.
From other non-violent encounters with Clackamas County Sheriff deputies, the department knew she had bipolar disorder and was on medication for it. I have no evidence, of course, since Judy was unable to acquire the coroner’s report. But to this day, I feel that the report was “doctored” to make it appear she’d killed herself – when in truth, she was killed by the deputies who responded. Remember that two months before Tonya’s death, the Sheriff’s department was called on the carpet for a different “suicide by cop” incident. And the county was motivated to avoid other legal entanglements.