This is what started this discussion:

I found this to be amusing. You see, I was the captain’s secretary when on February 14, 1986 a wedding took place where a sheriff’s deputy and a dispatcher were married. After the wedding another sheriff’s employee accused one or more deputies of raping her. By the time the investigation concluded it was alledged that a sheriff’s employee was raped, a sheriff’s volunteer was raped, another female employee had consensual sex with other sheriff’s employees on county time and on county property, and a number of deputy sheriffs had had sex with an underaged explorer scout. All the accused employees resigned, except for Bill “Beef” Abernathie, who was fired. Five deputies, including Abernathie, were arrested on various sex charges.

This was a story the Sheriff’s Department tried to cover up but one of the accused’s wives had other ideas and tipped off DP reporter Elizabeth Chambers. Eventually, the story made the national news. My captain was away at Quantico going through the FBI Academy. I was told by the Deputy Chief not to tell him so that he wouldn’t worry while he was away. Unfortunately, Dan Rather had other ideas and reported it on the 6 p.m. news. And Victorville got put on the map.

It wasn’t long after this that I became disgusted with cops and left the Sheriff’s Department. I didn’t really follow the cases as they made their way through the court system.

I did not give the case much thought for about 16 years or so. Then a controversy arose between Hansberger and Postmus. Somehow, and I cannot remember the circumstances, Abernathie was involved due to his affiliation with SEBA. One of my co-workers was close to SEBA so I asked why Hansberger did not use this situation to his advantage. I was told that the sex scandal had been swept under the carpet at the time and Hansberger knew nothing of it. I was also told that Abernathie’s first trial ended in a hung jury, 11-1 in favor of conviction. He second trial ended in acquittal. He went on to say that because of the way the law was written at the time, he was able to get off by claiming he did not know the explorer scout was under 18. If the trial took place today, he would have been convicted.

I CANNOT attest to what happened in court. I can attest to what happened when I worked at the Sheriff’s Department and I will write more about that soon.