PORT HADLOCK — A Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy has been placed on administrative leave during an investigation of a report of inappropriate behavior while on duty.
Undersheriff Tony Hernandez said on Wednesday that the Sheriff’s Office would not release the deputy’s name or details about the incident that is under investigation.
“We don’t want to compromise the integrity of the investigation by releasing a name until we have completed it,” Hernandez said.
But the Port Townsend Leader, a weekly newspaper, identified the deputy as Darrin Dotson.
The weekly newspaper said that Dotson, while in uniform, yelled at a volunteer umpire at a Little League baseball game after the umpire called a strike against Dotson’s 10-year-old son.
Bob Eldridge, president of East Jefferson Little League, told the Peninsula Daily News that Dotson is suspended from attending the next game his son’s team plays.
He said the action was taken after he was involved in a verbal altercation with an umpire who was officiating his child’s game at Bob Bates Field in Port Hadlock on April 21.
“I have no idea what exactly happened, because I was not there at the time,” Eldridge said.
Eldridge said he was told that Dotson was in uniform at the game and during the argument.
“Apparently they got into it, and apparently it went on for some time, until the umpire walked off and called the game.”
Eldridge said he spoke with eyewitnesses and, in the end, suspended Dotson for one game.
“I like Darrin,” Eldridge said. “He has a lot of good qualities about him.
“But being in uniform and causing a commotion probably wasn’t the best thing to do.”
