A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Thursday, August 7 on suspicion of illegally accessing confidential information from government databases for personal use, authorities said.

Deputy Michael Gene Schmidt, 41, was taken into custody in Murrieta and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on four counts of unauthorized computer access, according to a news release Friday.

Investigators from the Lake Mathews Sheriff’s Station opened an investigation into Schmidt on May 8. The department did not specify what type of information was accessed, how it was used, or over what time period the alleged violations occurred.

The department declined to answer whether any members of the public were affected, whether Schmidt’s actions involved active investigations, or how the depa

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