Smith

SALEM — A former Grant County deputy cleared of multiple charges in court may have to wait two more years before he can get his law enforcement credentials back.

Tyler Smith was fired from his job with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office in December 2019 following his arrest that September on charges of child neglect, attempted rape, attempted sex abuse and fourth-degree assault. In October of that year, Smith was cited for driving under the influence of intoxicants; that charge was later dismissed after he completed a diversion agreement.

The child neglect charges were dismissed in July 2022, and Smith was acquitted of the remaining charges at trial last November. Later that month, the county offered to rehire Smith as a sheriff’s deputy, but that offer was contingent on Smith restoring his law enforcement certification, which had lapsed after he lost his job as a deputy.

Before he could do that, however, he had to be cleared by the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which had opened a professional standards investigation into Smith’s conduct on Sept. 17, 2019, after being notified of his arrest.

That investigation has now concluded. On Nov. 16, the department’s Police Policy Committee reviewed the case and recommended that Smith be ineligible to hold law enforcement certification for five years.

The committee recommended the penalty be backdated to Nov. 25, 2020, when Smith entered the diversion agreement on the DUII charge. Under the committee’s recommendation, Smith would be eligible to have his law enforcement credentials restored in November 2025.

Smith did not take part in the meeting or offer a statement to the committee.

The committee’s deliberations, which were open to the public, were livestreamed on the department’s Facebook page.

The full board of the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training will vote on the committee’s recommendation at its Jan. 25 meeting, according to DPSST spokesperson Sam Tenney.

DPSST investigators considered a number of factors related to the various criminal charges against Smith and how they might impact his moral fitness for certification as a sworn officer of the law.

According to a staff report presented to the committee, investigators found no evidence that Smith had been dishonest or had misused his authority but did identify five instances of what they deemed possible misconduct.

Two of those claims were rejected by the committee because they were based on the criminal charges of which Smith was exonerated. A third claim related to Smith’s DUII arrest was downgraded from a possible moral fitness violation to an “aggravating factor” in the case.

In the end, the committee recommended that the staff report be amended to show two instances of misconduct by Smith, both related to his 2022 DUII case: the conviction itself, and the fact that his arrest on impaired driving charges violated his pretrial release agreement on the other charges against him.

If the full board affirms the committee’s recommendation at its January meeting, Smith would have the opportunity to appeal that decision.

Meanwhile, Smith’s $1.5 million lawsuit against the county for wrongful termination remains active in U.S. District Court. Last month, a magistrate judge in the case set deadlines for disclosure, motions and other filings in preparation for a potential trial next year.

Attempts to reach Smith for comment were unsuccessful.