Patterson to get new police chief; Hughes heads to investigations division

Police Chief Tori Hughes has accepted a new assignment to run the sheriff’s investigations division, so this West Side city will get a new chief soon.

The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department, which is contracted to provide police services for Patterson, has selected Lt. Jeff Dirkse to replace Hughes. The Patterson City Council will need to confirm his appointment over the next several weeks.

Sheriff’s officials said Hughes will be the commander of the investigations division, which will have significant growth in the next several months after the county Board of Supervisors restored some funding. Budget cuts during the recent recession had reduced the department’s staffing levels over the past several years.

Hughes was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in 1999, and she has served as Patterson’s police chief for more than five years. Her reassignment is one of several for midlevel managers at the department in the past few months due to staffing levels increasing, officials said in a news release.

“I commend Tori for her leadership and commitment to the citizens of Patterson over the past several years, and I look forward to her service as the investigations division commander,” Sheriff Adam Christianson said in the release.

In June 2013, Hughes entered the race for sheriff to unseat Christianson. At the time, she said she hoped to put an end to the department’s public and internal relations problems. She said morale was low and she wanted to end the discord she thought was weakening the department.

Hughes testified in a civil trial in 2012 that she heard the sheriff frequently refer to the “limp, lame and lazy” list in executive team meetings, as did other department leaders. She said on the witness stand that she was offended by the disparaging name for the list of injured workers at the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputy Dennis Wallace sued the county, claiming discrimination because he was injured and that he was forced out of his job. News coverage of the trial prompted a public apology from Christianson and an investigation by county leaders. The county eventually won the case, and Wallace returned to work.

During the June election, Christianson called Hughes and deputy Tom Letras, who also ran for the office, great employees and excellent representatives for the department.

In January 2014, a few months before the election, Hughes pulled out of the sheriff’s race, citing unspecified “health issues” from which she expected to fully recover but that affected her ability to campaign. Christianson easily won a third term as sheriff in June.

Dirkse was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in March 2007. His assignments have included working as a deputy in Patterson, a detective on the sheriff’s team investigating narcotics and gangs, and as an investigator in the rural crimes unit.

He was promoted to sergeant in 2013, working in patrol and internal affairs. He was promoted to lieutenant earlier this year.

Dirkse, a graduate of Turlock High School, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1994. He served nine years in the military, including time as an infantry company commander in Iraq, and is a major in the Army Reserve.

He is married and has three teenage children.

This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 9:01 AM with the headline "Patterson to get new police chief; Hughes heads to investigations division."