A Carson City Sheriff's Department deputy is back on patrol after a Washoe County investigation recommended no criminal charge be filed against him in an alleged assault on a television news reporter.
Deputy Bill Abbott, a nine-year veteran of the department, was reassigned Dec. 13, following a complaint by Carson City News Channel 61 reporter Dave Morgan in which he alleged Abbott grabbed him on Dec. 10.
Morgan was filming a fatal pedestrian accident on Stewart Street when Abbott reportedly asked Morgan to back away from the crime scene.
Lt. Ray Saylo, patrol lieutenant with the Carson City Sheriff's Department, said the Washoe County Sheriff's Department was called in to investigate the allegation by Morgan, while Abbott was reassigned to desk duty.
Washoe County reported no criminal wrongdoing on Abbott's part, but an internal investigation into the officer's conduct is still under way, Saylo said.
He said he was unable to give details of the complaint because they are pertinent to an ongoing internal investigation.
Saylo said Morgan came to the Sheriff's Department the following day, discussed the incident with Undersheriff Bill Callahan and filled out a citizen's complaint.
Washoe County's handling of the investigation is not unusual, Saylo said.
"Whenever we have a citizen's complaint and there is an appearance of a conflict of interest, we have an outside agency investigate," he said.
Morgan would not comment Friday, saying he was waiting for completion of the investigation.
