A former football hero turned sheriff’s deputy is no longer allowed to work in law enforcement in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Tyler Ebell, a star running back for Ventura High School and the UCLA Bruins, surrendered his officer certification to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training earlier this month, more than two years after he was fired by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
“Without that certification, he can no longer work as a sworn officer in any California police agency,” the Ventura County Star explains. “It will also make it difficult, perhaps impossible, for him to work as an officer in other states.”
Ebell was fired by the VCSO in late 2022 “after an internal affairs investigation found he ‘committed repeated acts of serious misconduct and grossly violated the foundational principles of a law enforcement officer.'”
Ebell carried on a sexual relationship with an inmate in a jail in which he worked, and an internal investigation began in late 2021 after off-duty deputies spotted him in a restaurant with that former inmate, the Times reports.
In an internal affairs report, investigators detailed that Ebell said he was “going through a lot of emotional stuff, and I made a ton of poor decisions not typically my character.”
“I was looking for an escape and I found it in a friend, and it was the wrong friend in the wrong place,” he reportedly explained. “And I did a lot of things that I would never normally do when I’m in the right mindset.”
