The Region - News from Feb. 4, 1987

A San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, fired last year after a female Explorer Scout told of their sexual involvement, has been reinstated, Sheriff Floyd Tidwell said. Charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor were dismissed in December against William E. Abernathie Jr., 27, after two juries failed to reach a verdict. Abernathie appealed his firing and the matter went to settlement negotiations last month. Abernathie had been a senior deputy in the Victorville station, where the Scout had worked as a volunteer. He was reassigned to the Central Jail, Tidwell said. Abernathie maintained that he had believed the Scout was a consenting adult when the two had sexual relations in his vehicle at Roy Rogers Museum in December, 1985. The Scout had turned 18 by the time she went to authorities last year.