Battle Ground prosecutors charged a Multnomah County sheriff’s deputy with misdemeanor assault Monday for allegedly attacking his wife’s friend last month.
The deputy, Mark Farmer, has been on paid leave since Oct. 11, the day delivery driver Cody Johnson, 29, claimed in a restraining-order request that Farmer threw him to the ground and beat his face and head in an unprovoked surprise attack.
Through his attorney, Farmer, 35, denied the allegations of an unprovoked assault. The fourth-degree assault charge carries a maximum 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
Johnson said the attack — which he said broke his nose — has led to ongoing trauma and fear, citing Farmer’s position as a deputy as among the reasons.
“Anyone who gets attacked in broad daylight is going to have an emotionally challenging period,” said his attorney, Angus Lee. “That’s even more the case when the person who is responsible for it is connected with law enforcement.”
Farmer’s attorney has cast doubt on the allegations, questioning why Johnson didn’t provide footage from a security camera on his house that pointed towards the sidewalk where the alleged attack occurred. Lee said Johnson’s camera didn’t activate because the two men were behind Johnson’s truck.
The events leading to the alleged assault began with a Facebook friend request.
In late May, Farmer’s wife, Kristin Farmer, introduced herself to Johnson’s wife, Katharine Johnson, after sending a Facebook friend request, according to a sworn statement Katharine Johnson made in Clark County Superior Court. Their children were in the same class at Daybreak Primary School, Kristin Farmer said. Kristin Farmer soon shared her cell phone number and the two began texting.
About three weeks later, Kristin Farmer started to pursue her new friend.
“I think you’re gorgeous,” Kristin Farmer wrote in a text message June 20. “I’m wondering if there’s any chance you’re at all interested in being more than just friends?”
Katharine Johnson was not interested.
“We don’t have an open marriage,” Katharine Johnson wrote, according to screenshots of their text messages. “But I’d love to be friends.”
As Kristin Farmer pursued Katharine Johnson over text for several days, she revealed that her relationship with her husband was in a bad place after she had learned that he had cheated on her with several women. She apologized several days later, attributing her behavior to her emotional state and problems in her marriage, Katharine Johnson said, according to court documents.
Cody and Katharine Johnson grew closer with Kristin Farmer over the months that followed, with them “bonding over shared interests and mutual respect,” Cody Johnson wrote in a sworn statement to the court.
Kristin Farmer sometimes posted compliments under Cody Johnson’s fitness videos on Facebook, he later told police. But she never made any sexual advances towards him, he said.
On Oct. 7, the Johnsons were cheering for the team Mark Farmer was coaching at a youth football game.
“The day ended on a positive note,” Cody Johnson wrote to the court, “with no signs of the turmoil that would soon unfold.”
That turmoil unfolded fast.
After dropping off his daughters at Daybreak Primary School Monday, Oct. 9, Cody Johnson drove home to find Mark Farmer parked near the Johnson house, Johnson told the court.
Johnson parked in his driveway, got out of his truck and gave Farmer a “friendly wave and greeting.” In response, Farmer ran over to Johnson, pushed him against a car, threw him to the ground, grabbed his hair and beat him in the face and head.
“You better not talk to my wife again!” Farmer allegedly told him.
Someone driving by honked their car horn, apparently prompting Farmer to stop the attack. Johnson said he told Farmer that he and Kristin Farmer were only friends, according to a police report.
“This better not go any further,” Mark Farmer yelled as he walked away, according to the account Johnson gave the responding officer.
Multnomah County sheriff's deputy Mark Farmer allegedly attacked Cody Johnson, his wife's friend, in front of Johnson's house on Oct. 9. Picture here are photos in the Battle Ground police report of the sidewalk in front of Johnson's house.Battle Ground Police Department
Johnson initially told officers he didn’t want to file a police report, “given the totality of the circumstances.” With no victim, and Farmer declining to give police a statement about the confrontation, the case was closed.
But the Johnsons soon realized how shaken up they were.
That same afternoon her husband was beaten, Katharine Johnson went to school to get her kids and found Mark Farmer there, wearing a brown Carhartt sweatshirt, black pants with a United Fighting Championship logo and a baseball cap on backwards. She turned on her phone’s camera and approached him to talk about what had happened.
He claimed he read something that revealed that Cody Johnson and Kristin Farmer had had a “very inappropriate long-term relationship” for months.
“How do you know?” Katharine Johnson asked.
“Because I read it,” Mark Farmer replied. “Every (expletive) word.”
Katharine Johnson told Mark Farmer about the flirtatious text messages his wife had sent her several months earlier, and he said he had read those messages, too.
“We want to make sure we’re safe,” Katharine Johnson said.
“You’re totally safe,” he said.
“What about my husband?”
“He’s safe, too,” Mark Farmer said. “As long as he stays the (expletive) away from my wife.”
Katharine Johnson later said she felt threatened during the exchange with Farmer.
Kristin Farmer texted Katharine Johnson later that day, according to police and court records.
“Nothing I say can or will make anything better,” Kristin Farmer wrote. “I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
“Apologize for what?” Katharine Johnson asked. “Your husband coming over to my house and jumping Cody?”
“All of it Katie. I’m sorry.”
“All of what?” Johnson asked again.
“I’d be happy to talk with you in person at some point,” Farmer said. “But I do think you should ask your husband.”
“I know for a fact you never had relations with Cody,” Johnson said. “So for you to lie about (that) to your husband and put my family in jeopardy is selfish.”
Two days after the alleged assault, Johnson walked into the Battle Ground Police Department lobby, asked to talk to Trent Elms, the officer who had responded to the scene, and told him he’d like to press charges after all. Johnson then submitted a request for a restraining order in Clark County court.
On Oct. 26, Battle Ground police recommended that Clark County prosecutors charge Farmer with second-degree assault. But the prosecutors didn’t learn of the recommendation until 18 days later, after The Oregonian/OregonLive asked if they planned to charge Farmer.
“Law enforcement has to check a box in their report-writing system for the report to be forwarded to our office,” Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Anna Klein said in an email. “It is common for them to fail to do that and us not get the report.”
After examining the case Monday, prosecutors declined to charge Farmer with the recommended felony. Battle Ground prosecutor Jill Karmy filed the misdemeanor citation in Battle Ground Municipal Court the same day.
Johnson has successfully petitioned a Clark County judge to forbid Farmer from coming near him or his wife and children and served a lawsuit demanding $250,000 for economic losses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of enjoyment of life and humiliation, records show.
“There’s infidelity in his relationship, and he’s projecting that onto other people and driving himself into a violent rage,” Johnson’s attorney, Angus Lee, said of Farmer. “If he thinks there’s something that justifies his conduct, he is mistaken.”
Johnson and his wife were happy to see progress in the criminal case, their lawyer said.
“The Johnsons are pleased to see the criminal charges being filed, and are looking forward to seeing justice done,” Lee said in an email.
Farmer joined the sheriff’s payroll June 22, 2015, as a corrections officer, then moved up to sheriff’s deputy about a year later. He is on the East Metro SWAT team and was assigned to the sheriff’s Transit Police Division before he was put on leave.
A potential internal investigation into Farmer’s conduct by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office could take place after the case in Washington is complete, the sheriff’s office’s communications director, Chris Liedle, said in an email.
“At this time, there’s been no decision to resume any Internal Affairs Unit processes,” Liedle said. “It is premature to speculate on any sanctions regarding this specific incident.”
Farmer is the second Multnomah County deputy charged with assault this year. The first, Larry Wenzel, resigned soon after his domestic-violence arrest in Clackamas County Jan. 31. He was eventually sentenced to 35 days in jail.
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