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Jeffrey Argo weeps during his sentencing (image credit: KTVZ News 21)
41 year-old Jeffrey Wade Argo, a former officer with the Eugene Police Department, resigned from his post about a year ago when information surfaced about his possession of child pornography and other criminal activities, according to a report by Lauren Martinez of KTVZ News in Bend.
Martinez stated that Argo was sentenced in Bend to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to 21 charges, which “involve miniature video cameras installed in the men’s bathroom [inside the men’s urinal] of the Eugene Police Department and in the bathroom of a Bend home where he and other officers stayed during a work retreat… filming a fellow officer at the state police academy in Salem, and four high school track team members at a Clackamas County freeway rest stop bathroom in 2013.”
Argo also was convicted on eight counts involving possession of child pornography after his home in Bend was raided by law enforcement investigators in December.
Argo’s actions in placing hidden cameras in a police station of all places is bold and unsettling — particularly in light of how many people he came in contact with every day as a Eugene police officer.
His former boss, Eugene Police Chief Pat Kerns summed it up best in a victim impact statement he read at the hearing, ” Children victims are the very people police officers work most diligently to protect, and Mr. Argo instead contributed to the lifelong harm caused by a deplorable trade. Mr. Argo’s criminal acts have undoubtedly robbed young men of innocence and a sense of safety. They have forever changed the feeling of security for our officers in our law enforcement community and in our police station, and he has committed the unconscionable crime that supports enduring and unimaginable harm to little children in the human trafficking trade.”
If you or someone you love has been abused and want to speak with someone confidentially, please call us toll-free at 1-888-407-0224 or email us at info@oandc.com.
