When investigator Kevin Duffy took his life in 2009 many in the community wondered why. At the time the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department simply said he was under investigation. Few people outside the department knew this respected man who founded the department’s children’s activities league was being accused of molesting young boys.
“People need to know the truth of what happened during that investigation,” says a now retired investigator on the Duffy case who asked to remain anonymous.
He claims after two victims came forward, they found Duffy was sexually abusing them and other young boys he was supposed to be mentoring.
He says the abuse often happened during sleep overs at motels, out of state, and even inside an RSO RV used to help children at crime scenes, “He would take that RV out and molest children in that RV … no one knew he was taking people out of state.”
He is the second former RSO employee to come forward with these claims.
He says the evidence found at Duffy’s home was disturbing, some on video, “There was footage of him molesting children,” adding that some of the evidence they found at Duffy’s home also included official RSO files, “he actually investigated other child molestation cases that he kept … photographs and anything related to that child molestation case.”
He says there was enough evidence to arrest him immediately. But he and the team were told to let Duffy go. The sheriff’s department issued a statement saying after a thorough investigation, (read full statement here)they found two incidents years apart and his death prevented prosecution.
But he says, “That is not true … the investigation team had enough to arrest Kevin Duffy that night and they were told not to arrest him by sheriff’s admin.”
This whisleblower says after Duffy killed himself they were forced to wrap up the investigation despite not having contacted all the potential victims or even asking the community for help. He says it doesn’t matter if nearly a decade has gone by, all files should be made public. And watching a mother who came forward after our first story aired is proof they need closure.
“Heartbreaking,” he says.
We repeatedly asked Sheriff Stan Sniff for interviews and for the files to be released under the California Public Records Act, the sheriff has declined all interviews and sent us a registered letter that says in part:
“The public interest served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure”.
