Sheriff’s deputy was on duty when he sent threatening text message, police say

A Harvey County sheriff’s deputy arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of making a criminal threat was on duty when he sent threatening text messages, North Newton Police Chief Randy Jordan said.

Levi Herring, who has been with the sheriff’s office for two years and worked for the county a total of four years, has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, Harvey County Sheriff Chad Gay said.

North Newton police made the arrest, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will help with the investigation, Harvey County District Attorney David Yoder said.

“My thoughts are first and foremost with the victim,” Jordan said. “We will do our due diligence to continue to investigate this incident and gather more information.”

Officials did not name the victim but said it was one person who was an acquaintance of Herring’s. The threats were not brought to police by the victim, Jordan said.

“It appears that his is an ongoing kind of situation, but we’re still putting those pieces together,” Jordan said.

Herring is being held without bond. Yoder said that is because of Herring’s having a gun and the ongoing threat of violence.

Yoder said in this case criminal threat means “A threat of violence with the intent to invoke terror or fear into another person.” He said he contacted the KBI and the Kansas Attorney General’s Office for assistance to ensure an independent investigation.

Gay said they may transfer Herring from the Harvey County Jail, because “all the folks that work in the jail ... are all friends with him. We’re all friends with him.”

Yoder said his office would prefer to not handle the case because it involves an officer from his county but said he’s still working on those details.

“Since it involved an officer who is equipped with a firearm, we always want to make sure that the community is protected, so on the side of erring overcautiously, we asked that a no-bond warrant be issued until we knew what we were dealing with,” Yoder said.

Gay said he wants the community to know the sheriff’s office in Harvey County takes this situation seriously.

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Gay said. “We’re not trying to protect him from anything. We want the process to work how it’s supposed to work. The sheriff’s office is a great group of people.

“This one guy doesn’t at all represent what we stand for as the sheriff’s office,” Gay said.

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 11:31 AM.