Nick JanesNick Janes
YUBA CITY (CBS13) – One of the
top police officers in Sutter County is behind bars tonight on child abuse
charges.
Yuba city police arrested
Sutter sheriff’s Captain Lewis McElfresh, Jr. on Tuesday afternoon. Police say
the victim is a female teenage family member.
We learned of the arrest just
hours ago, and tonight, detectives are still doing interviews.
McElfresh went from running the
Sutter County Jail to sitting behind bars himself next to some of the very
suspects he helped arrest.
“My concern is too many parents
wanting to facilitate alcohol parties,” said McElresh during an interview with
CBS13 in May.
Now he’s the subject of a child
abuse investigation.
“Our investigators did look
into the allegation and subsequently made the arrest at the Sutter County
Sheriff’s Department,” said Yuba City Police Department spokesperson Ofc.
Shawna Pavey.
Police took the report Monday.
By Tuesday, McElfresh was facing charges.
Authorities released few
details, echoing something McElfresh told us in 2011: “If I give you the
specifics, it can compromise what we’re doing.”
A woman who answered the door
at his last-known address in Yuba City said she just bought the place a week
ago.
Neighbors say he’s married with
a daughter, but kept to himself.
“He was pretty much all
business, but nice, you know? He always said hello,” said Judy, a former
neighbor.
According to his bio, Captain
McElfresh is a military veteran who served in Operation Desert Shield and
Desert Storm.
He was hired by the sheriff’s
office more than two decades ago, and today is one of its highest-ranking
members.
McElfresh’s bio also says he
spends his free time with his daughter. Police would not say what relationship
he has with the alleged victim, confirming only the teen girl — over the age of
14 — Is a relative.
We’re told by police the victim
is OK and did not require hospitalization.
It will be up to the Sutter
County sheriff whether to keep McElfresh at the county jail or transfer him
elsewhere. He is being held on $5 million bail.