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Though a Crescent City Police Department report has requested the district attorney file vandalism and vehicle tampering charges against one of acting lieutenants, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott says the allegations are based on circumstantial evidence.

The allegations stem from conflict between former deputy Cameron Stewart and Lt. Joe Ourjanian, who was a sergeant at the time of the Oct. 28 incident, Scott told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday.

Ourjanian had allegedly crammed a letter into Stewart’s truck and Stewart told the DNSO undersheriff that it had damaged his door panel, according to Scott. Stewart wanted to report the damage to law enforcement as a crime, the sheriff said

“There were no eyewitnesses to any actual damage that took place, but we did want to make sure that we did our due diligence to investigate,” Scott told the Outpost. “Even though it was on off-duty hours, it still happened at the station.”

Stewart was sworn in as a Brookings Police Department officer on Nov. 9. His last day with the DNSO was Oct. 29, Scott said.

Ourjanian is still on duty as acting lieutenant, according to the sheriff.

Del Norte County District Attorney Katherine Micks told the Outpost on Monday that she has the Oct. 29 report from the Crescent City Police Department, but hasn’t decided yet whether she will pursue charges against Ourjanian.

When asked for comment, Ourjanian told the Outpost on Monday that no crime had occurred.

“It was just false allegations from a disgruntled employee that left,” he said.

According to the CCPD report from Sgt. Anthony Lopez, DNSO Undersheriff Devin Perry called him on Oct. 28 about a “possible incident” that took place in the DNSO’s back parking lot involving Stewart’s personal vehicle. Perry also notified CCPD Chief Richard Griffin, who asked Lopez to lead the investigation, which would be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office.

According to Lopez, earlier that day Stewart, who was a grievance officer with the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Employees Association, had served Ourjanian with a letter stating that because he was an acting lieutenant, he couldn’t be the association’s president.

Stewart told Lopez that another deputy informed him that Ourjanian put the letter on his personal vehicle. Stewart said he found the letter between the driver door and the cab roof.

In his report, Lopez said he could see a piece of paper sticking out in between the top of the driver door and he cab.

“Deputy Stewart stated that the door frame had been pulled away from the cab and was bent,” Lopez wrote. “As I was looking at the door, I noticed that there was about a 1/8-to-1/4-inch gap between the door frame and the cab of the truck. The gap was largest at the top of the door frame and got smaller toward the bottom of the door frame. I asked Deputy Stewart how much it would cost to fix the door. Deputy Stewart stated that just the door with no glass, paint or labor was anywhere from $450.00 to $650.00 dollars.”

In his report, Lopez states he didn’t see a similar gap on the passenger side door, which was flush with the back of the cab.

According to Lopez’s report, Stewart told him there were two deputies who may have witnessed the incident. One of the deputies said she saw Ourjanian walk over to Stewart’s truck and saw him reach for it as she was parking, according to Lopez’s report. She said she couldn’t see where Ourjanian allegedly grabbed the truck, but did see a piece of paper sticking out of the driver door, according to Lopez’s report.

According to Lopez’s report, the other deputy said Ourjanian had asked her where Stewart was. In response to a question from Lopez about Ourjanian’s demeanor, the deputy said the lieutenant seemed angry and was holding a letter that she thought had to do with “association stuff.” When the deputy left to go home, she noticed a piece of paper sticking out of Stewart’s truck, according to Lopez’s report.

Lopez said he also reached out to Ourjanian on Nov. 2 regarding the Oct. 28 incident.

“Sergeant Ourjanian said, ‘I do not have a statement to give you,’” Lopez wrote. “I thanked him for his time and hung up the phone.”

According to Lopez’s report, he received an email from Stewart on Nov. 3 with a quote from California Auto Image for $1,120.44 to repair his vehicle.

In his report, Lopez said he learned of another incident between Stewart and Ourjanian that involved Ourjanian allegedly taking Stewart’s trainee away from him. According to Stewart, Ourjanian had said he was going to keep his trainee for the next few weeks, Lopez wrote.

“When Deputy Stewart asked Sergeant Ourjanian why he was having his trainee taken away Sergeant Ourjanian just said ‘stop talking shit’,” Lopez wrote. “Deputy Stewart did not understand and again asked Sergeant Ourjanian why he was having his trainee taken away. Sergeant Ourjanian yelled at Deputy Stewart and said ‘stop talking shit’ and then proceeded to yell at Deputy Stewart several times to ‘Get the fuck out of my office.’”

At that point, Stewart asked another DNSO sergeant, Enrique Ortega, to send an email to Perry and Del Norte County Human Resources complaining of a hostile work environment, according to Lopez’s report. Stewart told Lopez that though Ourjanian was advised of the complaint “to the best of his knowledge, nothing happened.”

Lopez requested the Del Norte County District Attorney to issue a warrant for Ourjanian on charges of vandalism and vehicle tampering based on his conversations with the witnesses Stewart named and the quote from California Auto Image, according to his report.

In addition to asking CCPD to investigate the incident, Scott said he has met with the District Attorney and has looked into the alleged damage to Stewart’s truck internally. Scott said in addition to the damage to the upper portion of Stewart’s truck, there’s other damage to the door that “occurred somewhere else previous to this report being taken.”

“There are no eye witnesses to any damage taking place other than the letter and so forth,” Scott told the Outpost.

The sheriff noted that any previous employee has the freedom to express any allegations, but as an employer, he’s unable to go into detail regarding internal investigations or disciplinary actions involving Stewart or “any problems that may be going on with him.”

Scott said there were other personnel issues going on in his office. When asked for more details, he referred to conflict within the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Employees Association regarding an advertisement endorsing Susan Masten for Del Norte County District 5 supervisor.

The ad, which ran in the Oct. 21 issue of the Del Norte Triplicate, depicts Ourjanian, who is speaking on behalf of the association and praising Masten.

In an Oct. 24 letter they planned to submit to the Triplicate, several association members, including Stewart, state they did not authorize the advertisement. The association’s policy is not to endorse any candidate for public office unless its entire membership agrees.

Ourjanian told the Outpost on Oct. 26 that the controversy over the ad prompted him to resign from being the association’s president.

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