Pennsylvania deputy sheriff allegedly took and shared naked photos of people in custody
A former deputy sheriff in Pennsylvania is accused of using his cellphone to take naked photos of at least two people in custody, sending them to coworkers and personal contacts and then trying to cover it up, prosecutors said Monday.
Ryan Gaffney is charged with official oppression, unsworn falsification to authorities and related offenses, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said in a press conference and news release.
Gaffney was fired from the Bucks County Sheriff's Office last month, Khan said.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from at least two incidents in December 2024 and January 2026. They began investigating Gaffney in March after the sheriff's office informed them of an internal affairs investigation into his conduct.
The first incident happened on Jan. 30 when Gaffney and four deputies executed an arrest warrant for a man in Middletown Township, prosecutors said. They said the man was suffering from a mental health crisis and was naked from the waist down in his bedroom.
Court documents allege Gaffney covered his body camera before taking a photo of the man. Investigators said body camera video from another deputy showed Gaffney removing his glove, opening up his camera application and taking the photo.
Gaffney later showed the photograph of the man's genitalia to female coworkers "in jest," court documents allege. Prosecutors said their investigation found Gaffney also texted the photo to two personal contacts.
Prosecutors said they found a second image on Gaffney's phone from Dec. 26, 2024, showing a separate naked man in custody lying across a bed. The photo was sent to 12 different personal contacts over four different dates, they said.
Gaffney allegedly lied during a voluntary administrative interview on April 6 and signed a written statement denying that he used his cellphone to "create and distribute the Jan. 30 image," according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Gaffney also allegedly sent investigators screenshots of his active and recently deleted photo libraries on his phone to mislead them about the January 2026 photo. Investigators recovered both photos from Gaffney's iPhone on April 23.
In a statement, Gaffney's attorney Paul Lang said, "My client, Ryan Gaffney, is a veteran and father who has spent his life serving his country and his community through law enforcement. Unlike the District Attorney's Office, I will address this case in court, not through one-sided social media posts or press conferences. Ryan Gaffney deserves due process, not trial by publicity. These are allegations, not facts, and we look forward to answering them where they belong, in a courtroom."
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office said the allegations against Gaffney are "beyond unacceptable and not in any way representative of the highly professional deputies who serve this county with integrity every day."
