Deputy plays important role in the community

Tim Hernandez has been the School Resource Officer (SRO) for Sisters School District since the fall of 2002. His work is important, but generally quiet. In many ways he acts as an intermediary between the kids he sees daily and the adult word of authority, from school teachers, counselors, and principals to his official boss, Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles.

Hernandez and the three other SROs in Deschutes County are due to be rotated to different jobs at the end of this school year (see story, page 1). That has caused some dismay among Sisters school officials, who would like to keep him longer. But Sheriff Stiles is adamant about his rotation policy.

It’s clear that Hernandez has talents that could lead him to future assignments beyond his current position.

A native of Eugene, Hernandez moved his family to the Sisters area 13 years ago. He worked briefly for the Sisters Police Department before it was dissolved in 1998 and was hired by the sheriff’s department in 1999.

He then moved to Terrebonne as the community resource officer. He showed an ability to connect with local folks and to find out who was troubled or likely to get into trouble. It wasn’t long before he played acrucial role in one of the county’s most dramatic murder cases.

On a Sunday in late March 2001 he got a report of a runaway from a woman whose teenaged son had left the house and not returned. Hernandez knew the family. He had always taken runaway cases seriously and had encouraged parents to report missing children.

The next day, having been in touch with several young people who knew the boy in question, he traced the missing teen’s steps to a home on the Old Bend-Redmond Highway. There, he and sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Johnston came upon a horrendous murder scene. The victim was Barbara Thomas. The two officers arrived about an hour after Thomas’s son and four other teenagers, including the initially reported runaway, had fled.

In tracking the runaway Hernandez had developed a lot of information about friends who were now murder suspects, which made it possible for descriptions to be sent out quickly. The fugitives were soon arrested attempting to cross into Canada from Washington state.

Several months later, the sheriff’s office honored Hernandez for his work.

“He made an extraordinary effort to track these kids,” said Sheriff Stiles. “Deputy Hernandez is single-handedly responsible for catching those five kids.”