Former California sheriff’s deputy takes his own life after arrest for attempted sex with ‘teen’

A former sheriff’s deputy has died by suicide after being arrested earlier this month on suspicion of attempting to have sex with a minor. Los Angeles Times reported.

Anthony Russo, 52, once a deputy with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead Friday at his home in Arrowbear Lake, the San Bernadino County coroner confirmed.

The sheriff’s special investigations bureau received a tip on December 10 about possible crimes committed by Russo.

An undercover investigator posing as a 15-year-old contacted Russo, who “shared explicit material and stated his intention to meet the alleged minor to engage in sexual acts.”

A day later, on December 10, Russo was arrested at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, where he worked as a corrections officer, according to a release by the sheriff’s office.

He was arrested for two felonies, but was ultimately charged by the Riverside County District Attorney with one misdemeanor count of knowingly distributing harmful material.

After his arrest, he also resigned from his role in the sheriff’s department’s corrections division.

Russo was out on $50,000 bail when he died and was scheduled to appear in court on January 24.

Pictured: Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, where Russo worked

The coroner’s office has not provided any additional information about the nature of Russo’s suicide or revealed who found him.

Thew Sheriff’s Department said they had no additional details about his death because the investigation is outside their jurisdiction.

The department extended its condolences to “the family and friends affected by this tragic loss.”

This comes as a New York City police sergeant was found dead Monday night after apparently shooting himself in the head.

The unidentified 44-year-old officer who worked in Queens was found dead in his car of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a residential block in Flushing around 7:20 p.m. according to the New York Post.

Authorities have not yet released the officer’s name, pending family notification.

Monday’s death was just the latest suicide among New York police in recent years.

In 2019, four city police officers took their own lives in just three weeks.

Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 63, marked the first of four deaths that year when he was found dead in a police vehicle in Queens on June 5 – a month before his mandatory retirement.

The next day, police found the body of missing Detective Joseph Calabrese, 58, on a Brooklyn beach.

Police said they both also died from gunshot wounds to the head.

Then on June 14, police officer Michael Caddy, 29, shot himself in the head in a car parked on a Staten Island street, and on June 2, Kevin Preiss, 53, a veteran cop assigned to the Bronx, was found dead on his Nassau Street. County home after a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

A total of ten NYPD officers committed suicide in 2019.