A Bucks County sheriff’s deputy used his personal cell phone to take naked pictures of two people he encountered as part of his job, including a mentally ill man at whose home he was serving an arrest warrant, prosecutors said Monday.
Ryan Gaffney, 46, has been charged with official oppression for taking the photos, as well as unsworn falsification to authorities for lying about the photos and attempting to dissuade investigators by sending them doctored screenshots of his phone’s photo library.
Gaffney, of Feasterville, shared the photos to get “his kicks” with civilian employees at the Bucks County Justice Center, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said at a news conference Monday.
“Mr. Gaffney’s conduct is a disgrace. It’s an abuse of the trust given to him by the sheriff’s office and by taxpayers,” Khan said. “When a deputy sheriff breaks the law, and lies about it, he erodes the public trust that our law enforcement officers work every day to build.”
Gaffney was charged via summons, and has not yet been arraigned on the charges, court records show. He was fired from his position with the county sheriff’s office in June, officials said Monday.
Gaffney’s attorney, Paul Lang, said Monday that he 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,” Lang said. “These are allegations, not facts, and we look forward to answering them where they belong, in a courtroom.”
The photo of the first victim was taken Jan. 30, when Gaffney and four other sheriff’s deputies served a warrant at the man’s home in Middletown Township, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
When the deputies arrived, the document said, the man was naked from the waist down, and asked deputies to allow him to put pants on. Before he could do so, Gaffney used his personal cell phone to take a photo of the man’s genitals, according to the affidavit.
A review of Gaffney’s body-worn camera footage showed that he placed his hand over the camera while taking the surreptitious photo. Other deputies at the scene said they were unaware that Gaffney had taken the photo until later.
One of those deputies saw Gaffney sharing the photo with female civilian employees at the courthouse, and reported his conduct, the affidavit said. Investigators later learned he had also texted the photo to other contacts in his cell phone.
Bucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler said Monday that he reported Gaffney’s conduct to Khan’s office immediately after learning about it.
The former deputy’s behavior, Ceisler said, “was beyond unacceptable and not in any way representative of the highly professional deputies who serve this county with integrity every day.”
While investigating the case, county detectives found that Gaffney had taken a photo of another person during a separate arrest in December 2024.
A photo of that person’s buttocks, taken while he was handcuffed, was shared with 12 people, including other members of the sheriff’s office’s warrant division, the document said.
While being questioned by investigators, Gaffney denied taking the photographs and signed a sworn affidavit affirming that. Through his attorney, he also provided screenshots of his phone’s photo library that showed the photos were not on the device.
However, investigators downloaded the contents of Gaffney’s phone, and were able to recover both images, which had been deleted.
Gaffney was sworn in as a sheriff’s deputy in June 2023.
Before joining the office, Gaffney served in Iraq with the Air Force in 2005, and as a part-time officer with Penndel Police, according to Bucks County Commissioners.
Gaffney also works as a part-time officer with Hulmeville Borough Police, one of three members of the police force in the small municipality, and was sworn in there in late 2022, according to a borough newsletter published in January 2023.
Hulmeville Police Chief John Baran did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
