A Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deputy was arrested Sept. 26 in Ventura on multiple felony charges of child molestation and oral copulation with a minor, police said.

According to investigators, Thomas Terry Triplett, a 40-yearold Camarillo resident, turned himself into detectives with the Major Crimes Bureau in connection with a relationship he had with a teenage girl that lasted several years.

Court records show Triplett’s sexual relations with the teen, who is now 19, allegedly began in April 2005 when the girl was 14. Triplett faces additional charges because the girl was under 16.

Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said Triplett turned himself into detectives shortly after the relationship came to their attention.

Bonfiglio would not say how detectives learned of the relationship or whether the teen was related to Triplett.

Triplett, a 15-year veteran with the sheriff’s department, was working as a patrol deputy with the department’s main station in Ventura at the time of his arrest.

He has since been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

Triplett is being held at the Main Jail in Ventura in lieu of $800,000 bail. His next court appearance, an arraignment hearing, will be Oct. 16, records show.

—Daniel Wolowicz