Deputy charged in Bi-Mart heist
Published: December 24, 2005
By PAUL DAQUILANTE
Of the News-Register
A Clackamas County Sheriff's Office deputy and former Yamhill County reserve deputy was arrested late Friday and charged with the Thursday afternoon armed robbery of the McMinnville Bi-Mart store, according to Sheriff Jack Crabtree.
David Verbos, 36, of Newberg, a Clackamas County deputy since July 1995, was charged with one count of first-degree robbery. He was booked into the Yamhill County Jail without bail.
The charge is a Measure 11 offense, punishable by a mandatory minimum prison sentence of seven years and six months upon conviction.
Bi-Mart was robbed of unidentified drugs by an armed male adult, according to McMinnville Police Lt. Rob Edgell.
Officers were dispatched to the store at 1635 S.W. Baker St. at 5:15 p.m. on a reported armed robbery.
Edgell said the lone while male entered the "employee's only" area of the pharmacy, located on the east side of the building.
The suspect displayed a handgun and demanded controlled substances. Once he obtained the drugs, he fled the store, and was last seen driving southbound on South Baker Street in a newer blue colored passenger car with unknown Oregon license plates.
Detective Dwayne Willis would not comment on the kind of drugs the suspect demanded, what he was given and the quantity.
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said his office was notified by Yamhill County authorities that Verbos was being investigated in connection with the robbery. The two agencies then began working together.
Verbos worked as a Yamhill County reserve deputy from 1991 to 1995. He was then hired full time by Clackamas County, where he has worked as a patrol deputy, school resource office and most recently a patrol deputy in the city of Wilsonville.
"It's a sad day in any law enforcement agency when you have to arrest one of your own," Roberts said. "The public trust for all law enforcement is damaged when just one betrays that trust.
"It is imperative that we send a message to the public and also to the members of our office that we will aggressively investigate allegations of any misconduct. We will continue to provide Yamhill County with any and all additional information."
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