FILE - A police officer shows an Axon Body 2 body camera in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2019. The Clark County Sheriff's Office uses a similar type of body-worn camera. A spokesperson for the sheriff's office said they plan to investigate claims that deputies muted their body cameras after a deadly use-of-force incident in 2025.
Ross D. Franklin / AP
More than a year after a Clark County sheriff’s deputy fatally stabbed a man, attorneys for the man’s family have raised concerns about “systemic misuse of body-worn camera footage” by deputies at the scene.
Deputy Bryson Layton was on duty on May 7, 2025, and responded to the scene of a car crash just north of Vancouver shortly before 11 p.m. He arrested 54-year-old Marc Fogle on suspicion of drunk driving.
After transporting Fogle and interviewing him in an exam room, the two men began to fight, according to investigative records. Layton ultimately stabbed Fogle 17 times in the back, killing him.
Layton’s use of deadly force is still under investigation, according to the attorneys representing Fogle’s family. The Clark County Prosecutor’s Office, which is reviewing the case, did not respond to questions.
While Fogle’s estate has not yet filed a lawsuit, they are raising concerns that multiple deputies improperly muted their body-worn cameras while responding to the scene.
According to attorney Angus Lee, who wrote to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office on July 14, a sergeant responding to the scene explicitly told Layton to keep his camera recording. Yet the deputy muted his camera soon after, ending its audio recording function.
Marc Fogle, right, pictured with family in an undated photo. Fogle was stabbed to death by an on-duty Clark County Sheriff's Office deputy following an altercation in 2025.
Courtesy of the Marc Fogle estate
Lee said several responding deputies also hit the mute button. The agency’s policies allow deputies to mute or deactivate their cameras in “reasonable” circumstances and should explicitly state on-camera their reasons for ending the recording.
Lee contended that a fatal stabbing involving an on-duty colleague was not reasonable. Muting in that moment defeated “the transparency promised by the body-worn camera program.”
“Deputies wrongfully, and suspiciously, muted the audio at critical times immediately in the aftermath of an officer-involved killing,” Lee wrote. “Those conversations are often among the most important evidence available to investigators, prosecutors, courts, juries and the public.”
Sergeant Matt Volker, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, declined to comment on the nature of the allegations.
OPB has not reviewed the body-worn camera footage of the stabbing. According to Lee, at least seven deputies muted their devices. The footage reportedly recorded video of Layton talking to the other deputies after the confrontation with Fogle and “demonstrating aspects of the encounter through hand gestures.”
One deputy, according to the letter, muted as soon as he heard over the radio that Layton stabbed Fogle. The deputy is recorded saying “oh shit he stabbed him” right before he ceases the audio recording.
Volker, the spokesperson, said the agency received Lee’s letter and plans to investigate his claims in the weeks ahead.
