Former police sergeant arrested in wife's murder case
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A fired police officer has been charged in the alleged murder-for-hire death of his wife, whom he married after undergoing a female-to-male sex-change operation.
Oregon City police said Wednesday that 50-year-old Lynn Edward Benton has been charged with aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Benton, a former police officer in the Portland suburb Gladstone, has been a suspect since shortly after his beautician wife, Deborah Higbee Benton, was found dead in her beauty salon on May 28, 2011. An autopsy showed she was shot, beaten and strangled.
"Well I think that kind of puts it to bed, because I think we knew something else had to be going on," said Higbee Benton's friend Bob Dominic.
Police arrested Susan E. Campbell, 54, just days after the death and she has remained in jail without bail. Investigators say Benton agreed to pay Campbell $2,000 to commit the crime.
Campbell, who was scheduled to go on trial next year, has a plea hearing scheduled for Friday. Her attorney, Daniel Woram, said his client is cooperating with prosecutors.
At Campbell's bail hearing last year, Oregon City police Detective Brad Edwards testified that she confessed to entering the beauty salon and shooting Higbee Benton. Prosecutors said they believe the shot wasn't fatal and that Campbell quickly called Benton, who was working at police headquarters.
An autopsy found that Higbee Benton suffered a dozen broken ribs, a lacerated liver and evidence of strangulation, including a fractured thorax. The medical examiner described the attack as "kill, kill and overkill."
Detectives interviewed Benton last year, but he was not arrested until Wednesday in Portland. Benton was transferred to the Clackamas County Jail in Oregon City later Wednesday.
Benton's attorney, Pat Birmingham, was at a trial Wednesday and not available to comment.
Benton, born Lynne Irene Benton, spent almost 25 years with the Gladstone Police Department, including a stint as the police spokeswoman, before she was fired last year on unrelated matters.
Police Chief Jim Pryde said Benton viewed pornographic material on a work computer and fraudulently married a Brazilian immigrant in 1993 so the man could obtain U.S. citizenship.
"We're mostly happy for Debbie Higbee's family and friends that this case has moved forward," Pryde said.
Benton completed the sex change about a year before marrying Higbee Benton in 2010. Prosecutors have said the relationship was rocky and Benton moved out a month before the killing.
KATU's Thom Jensen contributed to this story.
You can't make this stuff up
just think of all the fun the Prisoners will have when the see this ex-cop, is it true that being an ex-cop and going to prison is the worst thing that can happen?
Shot strangled and beaten. Nice. Couldn's just let your former girlfriend get on with her life post break up. YOU were the only one entitled to a life - post break up? Come on. A highly trained supervising police SERGEANT just had to take a different path. Make sure his/her girlfriend was good and dead. That's what the charging document says about Lynn Benton.
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I would be concerned for the public and incensed - if KATU is shielding the fact that this low life was treated preferentially because he is a former police sergeant and really and truly all he had to do - was post a couple thousand bucks and off he goes - back to his private life and his freedom.Â
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Where is this dangerous individual today, KATU? Free to be - out and about all around the metropolitan area? The public has a right to know. And be scared and concerned for their safety - if he indeed was released back out to a free society.Â
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 @englishdaisy Read much?
The whole story is based on the ARREST of the former sergeant.
It is currently rotting in a Clackamas county jail cell.
 @Jack_Bauer  @englishdaisy IT is a good description of this so called human being.Â
omg I took a class at PCC, and this woman/man was one of the instructors... she lectured for 3 weeks, teaching Emergency Management students about Law Enforcement, and their role in EM... oh, the irony!!! smh...
Dude looks like a lady. (sorry, Areosmith)
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 @HarryJuku If memory serves, one of the reasons she was in trouble with the Gladstone PD was for falsifying documents. The problem was that she was not honest about her gender in the application.
I dont know if the truth would have kept the GPD from hiring her but apparently she thought it might.
I actually had her for a teacher for some criminal law stuff before any of this transpired. She was a good instructor.
Ironic, ain't it.
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 @Jack_Bauer  @HarryJuku Good luck getting on the stand and testifying on your own behalf, Mr/Ms. Benton. As a known perjurer - who is going to believe a word you spew?Â
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Ah, how was it - knowing she was a perjurer who would say anything - lie about anything if it suited her needs at the moment - that the Gladstone Police Department ever hired her in the first place?Â
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 @HarryJuku I totally got that.
Was just adding that the PD probably had no clue at the point of her initial application.
I concur with your point. I also am not shocked that the derelict K2 'news' force deleted your post.
This is about the worst excuse for serving the public's media needs that I have ever seen.
If he used to be a she, then this isn't the first time he has killed someone?
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 @HarryJuku Good bye blue sky!! Just do a bunch of steroids over time and you to can look like this. Your balls/ovaries will get bigger and God knows what else - she was really beautiful in the 1980's, trust me...
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 @I812 He actually looks rather quite butch.
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@Mick Wagner Too funny! Remember we now get to pay for his/her hormones so she/he can keep the sideburns and other body hair. Cops always have a difficult time in prison. This one's time should be a real doozy. Of course if he/she gets the death penalty he/she won't be mixed in with the general population.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/Cop-involved-in-murder-case-fired-for-porn-1993-fake-marriage-138598459.html.....Where was he from?"Benton was involved in a âfraudulent marriage in 1993 to a Brazilian⦠so he could obtain citizenship in the United States.â The chief wrote that allegation was âsustained.â
@FireEyes     Sgt. Benton is from Gladstone. The marriage he had entered into was with a Brazilian man that needed to qualify for US Citizenship.
 @fracas Geeeezzzz.... After your comment, I read it again and the answer is right there... in neon lights! Maybe I need new glasses. LOL
 @fracas Oh, okay... that makes sense. Thank you :-)
Man, people have become both complicated and weird.....!
@Justsomeguy In other words, he/she would have made a good Portland mayor.
Hopefully the length of time between the crime and this arrest was necessary to ensure a conviction of this miscreant.
 @I812 It was, and it never stopped...
First of all, he must have gone to Dollar Tree or WallMart looking for a hit-person, because $2000 seems awful cheap to knock someone off. Secondly, I agree, why did this take so long. Third, I have a very strange feeling there will be a very bizarre web of events that untangles during the trial.
 @pdxd Lynn Benton went to her mother's caregiver - Ms. Campbell - to do the hit. Where have you been all your life? When Ms. Campbell shot the woman, she did not die and along comes Lynn Benton on routine patrol to check on things and finishes the job. What part of all this got by you??
 @boned Earlier the article had made a mention of there some sort of relationship between Campbell and the victim. Nothing got by me, I was just commenting on the parts that I had additional questions, and opinions on.
did he think it'a a guy thing to kill people? i know i haven't yet.
Only a man and a woman. can marry....Therefore they werent married.
 @sortbait We've been doing sex change surgeries in the United States since the 1960's. They're aptly named "sex change" operations, because surprisingly enough - the surgery CHANGES the sex of the person. We're in the 21st century now, Sweetie - hurry along and try to catch up.
 @gofigure Â
Wrong!!! Mutilating your body and filling it full of the wrong hormones doesn't change the sex you were born to be. "He" is still biologically a woman, albeit now very messed up woman, regardless of what the law might say. Could very well be all that testosterone made 'it' crazy.
 @pdxd Â
Well, 'he' isn't a he either and doesn't want to be the woman she was born to be so I think 'it' describes the confusion pretty well.
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By all means make the 'state' your end all and be all. It's nice not to have to think or question beyond what you are told isn't it?
 @ormom He is not an "it" you insensitive person. The state identifies him to be male. You can go discuss your objections on this with your clergy, but the fact remains, in the eyes of the state, he is considered male.
 @gofigure  @sortbait "...the surgery CHANGES the sex of the person." No, it does NOT change the sex of the person. It only changes the plumbing. It is still God's creation and He will not tolerate for long a nation of blasphemers. If you choose not to believe it, He'll explain it to you later.
 @pdxd  My God created dinosaurs. Why wouldn't He believe in them?
 @HenryBowman Your God also doesn't believe in dinosaurs.
@sortbait Well, one was a woman who became a man, therefore they were under current law able to marry as one man, one woman. Next time Sesame Street runs a very special episode about this topic, I'll send you the video link to explain it to you.
 @pdxd  @sortbait Benton is a woman who has attempted an end run around the law of the God who created her. Only a fool would allow the government to define who is a man and who is a woman.
 @HenryBowman Says you. My God wears sequins, loves watching the Wizard of Oz, enjoys sprinkling the earth was shimmering snow in the winter, and sings showtunes in the shower, oh, and creating rainbows after storms. I think it's your God that wants to burn people at the stake if they don't do exactly as he says. I like my God better.
'fracas' - The weird part is that before all this transpired Lynn Benton and her partner found some municipal judge to perform a wedding and Lynn Benton managed to get it filed at the courthouse. The sad part for me is that she was a good cop whenever I worked with her - she was city and I was county. To go from a beautiful and successful female to an ugly man and killer is still hard for me to wrap my head around...
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 @I812  @boned  @I812 Not her. She even quit her job at Gladstone to go to some CA sheriff's office to be with her love and that did not work out so she came back to work. My best lesbian friend needed my approval of her body one evening when she was drunk and it was just fine with me, but I do feel guilty having been where no man has been before. We are still best friends...
@boned And what's really weird too is that Susan Campbell was taking care of Sgt. Benton's elderly mom. Gosh....not someone I'd want watching my mom :(
@boned  Yep...me too! I mean, that's fine if that's what they want to do. I have no problem with that kind of stuff...who am I to say. What I don't get is the murder involvement. And as you say, she was a good cop and all, why throw that away? I guess he (Lynn Benton) was working at Greyhound when they caught him :( What a step down from what he could have had :( It's really a very sad situation.
 @fracas I spent an hour with my buddy - and former detective - trying to figure out exactly what you said. We talked about normal divorces where it is thank you for letting me out of the cage. For some unknown reason to us, gay separations turn extremely violent to the point of slice & dice and stuff you really do not want to know about - obviously there are exceptions amongst heterosexuals as we all know.
 @fracas  @boned Yea, just me and my memories of 29.5 years as a cop and now I have my purebred Burmese kitten that loves the water, playing fetch and going for car rides.
 @fracas  @boned No three-way. Lynn Benton was on her way to becoming a 'man' and Higbee was in the way because she was against it and that meant $$$$$$$. Campbell needed the money because of dope and Benton saw an opportunity. Keep in mind that Campbell pulled the trigger, but Benton finished the botched execution. This will be all over the news, but please keep in mind that 99% of it will be Tabloid Journalism, OK??
@boned @fracas  Well...this seems like a 3-way thing to me. Between Benton, Campbell and Higbee. There was some sort of jealousy there. I'm thinking that Benton wanted to 'go" with Campbell and Higbee was in the way. But why kill her off???? I mean...it's such a waste! I'm also wondering if Higbee went that "way"...ya know? Why not just walk away? Debbie Higbee, from what I have read and understand, was a really nice lady. She owned her little shop for 20 years! Gosh...I'll just stick with my cats and dogs :( Gettin' scary out there :(
What a terrible mess for all involved.
Ok...just found out....Lynn Benton used to be a woman...he is now a guy. And he wasn't the husband. He and Debbie were just "together"...they weren't married. Supposedly. Sheeeesh....whatta mess.
I'm confused....who had the sex change operation? I remember that susan campbell is lesbian and it seems that she and Debbie Benton had a relationship. So...was the husband a former woman, now a female????  Oh, what a tangled web we weave!!
I'm confused about who had the sex change and why it was included in the article...
Will the police union fight to have him reinstated?
 @Jamie Not even, she/he/it was fired and everyone in the cop circle knew she did it...