Detectives investigating a homicide stumbled upon a Spokane County deputy accused of trading pills and sexting at work, records say

A man accused of murder and kidnapping a woman he chained up in his basement in Pend Oreille County had texted about trading prescription pills with a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy who was his neighbor, according to a sheriff’s office investigation.

Deputy Daniel Middlebos, 61, resigned his position last summer after the texts were discovered.

The texts led to the sheriff’s office finding thousands of pornographic images on Middlebos’ sheriff’s office cellphone, including some taken of himself within the Public Safety Building, according to the internal investigation.

Middlebos was a decorated member of law enforcement with a Sheriff’s Star award and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition.

The texts suggested Middlebos and the accused murderer were trading pills, according to the sheriff’s office internal investigation. Middlebos also used his work cellphone to send a woman pornographic photos and videos of himself in uniform from inside the sheriff’s office and using the sheriff’s office address to mail women’s underwear, according to investigative reports obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

Roughly 50,000 images and 1,000 videos were found on his work phone, many of them not related to the job, records say. Law enforcement found among them 240 images that depict the former deputy in “various stages of undress, sexual contact and sexual intercourse.”

The only reason the conduct came to light was the June arrest of Newport resident John Rosen, who was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.

Law enforcement responded June 5 to a welfare check at 334 Fertile Valley Road, where they discovered a woman chained up inside a motorhome and a dead man buried inside a hole on the property, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-Review. The woman told police that Rosen and another man had shot her boyfriend and buried him.

When investigators seized and searched Rosen’s phone, they found a contact listed as “Dan the cop neighbor” corresponding with Rosen about buying and selling prescription pills, the reports say. The number belonged to Middlebos. The two were neighbors and had known each other for several years, investigators discovered.

Investigators immediately told Pend Oreille Sheriff Glenn Blakslee, who put all of Middlebos’ correspondence on a thumb drive and handed it over to Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels.

Nowels on July 24 reviewed the thumb drive and requested a formal investigation into Middlebos. He also placed Middlebos on administrative leave that day, according to the sheriff’s office’s reports.

The Spokesman-Review was unable to reach Middlebos via phone call, text message and email for comment.

The Pend Oreille Sheriff’s Office ultimately declined to pursue charges against Middlebos in relation to the prescription pills because they believed they could not establish probable cause, reports say. But the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office was already in the midst of a full-fledged investigation.

Middlebos had more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, according to a 2018 news release from the sheriff’s office. The release states he holds law enforcement certifications in Michigan, Idaho and Washington, and has received two Life-Saving Awards and a Certificate of Commendation, in addition to his Sheriff’s Star and congressional recognition certificate. The certificate was gifted to Middlebos by former U.S. Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

The reports indicate he is married with a family.

The Office of Professional Standards had seized and scoured Middlebos’ work cellphone, his department laptop, his access cards, firearms and his take-home patrol car. They found Middlebos’ last text to Rosen was when police were at his home, arresting him on suspicion of murder.

“John call me ASAP,” Middlebos wrote.

Investigators went on to uncover much more.

Beyond texts saying he was shipping pills to his “girls” in California, the standards’ office investigators also found pornographic videos on his work cellphone. Many were sent to a woman through Facebook messenger.

Some videos and images were taken while he was in the driver’s seat of his department-issued vehicle. Some were taken in a sheriff’s office conference room or his office. One was of Middlebos masturbating in the Public Safety Building’s bathroom. Others were porn downloaded from the internet.

One photo depicted female purple underwear hanging off his department uniform, according to the reports, and another photo depicted female underwear in an envelope with a return address of 1100 W. Mallon, the address of the county’s Public Safety Building.

It seemed to “appear Dep. Middlebos was using the county mail system to mail envelopes to the female and the contents of the envelopes all appear to be female underwear,” the report states.

Investigators were able to identify the location of the photos, like his patrol car, based on the gun rack in the back or the appearance of the sheriff’s office conference room.

Middlebos is also believed to have been picking up pills on his way home from work in his patrol vehicle, reports say.

On Aug. 6, Middlebos notified Nowels he would be resigning effective Aug. 16. due to “recent personal life events and circumstances.”

“Thank you for twenty-great years with the agency and will deeply miss the position and the fantastic co-workers I’ve had over this vast amount of time,” Middlebos wrote in his resignation letter. He declined to be interviewed by the Office of Professional Standards, reports show.

After two months of investigation, the Office of Professional Standards found Middlebos had violated numerous department policies. Nowels reviewed their findings and agreed. He also believed there may be probable cause to investigate Middlebos for a felony over trading prescription pills, Nowels wrote in reports.

“Given the numerous, serious, sustained policy violations, Deputy Middlebos would have been terminated for any single one of the sustained violations,” Nowels wrote, and added that his office would be forwarding the findings of the investigation to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission to revoke Middlebos’ peace officer status, meaning he would be ineligible for another Washington law enforcement position.

The commission’s records show the commission declined to decertify Middlebos because its preliminary review determined the case did not “meet the criteria for a full investigation for certification discipline.”

Nowels told The Spokesman-Review the commission relayed to him it did not believe Middlebos would be seeking re-employment in law enforcement anywhere else, and if he should, it would move forward with possible decertification.

“We have high expectations for the behavior of any law enforcement officer, particularly with deputies,” Nowels told The Spokesman-Review. “The conduct displayed did not come close to meeting our expectations and standard. I believe our investigation showed that.”

Rosen, Middlebos’ neighbor, is scheduled to face trial in April.