FRYEBURG, Maine — The police chief and a pair of officers have been returned to duty after an investigation revealed no wrongdoing in connection with a party on Oxen Pull Road.
Chief Philip Weymouth and reserve officers Dale Stout and Andrew Ward had been on administrative leave since Oct. 23 when the town of Fryeburg and some news agencies received an anonymous letter along with a pair of photos.
The letter and photos were made public last month when The Bridgton News published a story about the claims detailed in the letter.
The letter writers had alleged that the Fryeburg police officers encouraged teenagers to drink beer that had been confiscated over the summer. Included was a photo of a town employee’s wife dancing on the hood of a marked Police Department truck.
The party was alleged to have taken place at 9 Oxen Pull Road.
According to The Bridgton News story, the letter writers claimed Chief Weymouth gave his blessing to the party after taking some of the confiscated beer for himself. Weymouth denied the charge, telling a Bridgton News reporter: “Never happened.”
An investigator apparently agreed.
On Oct. 25, Town Manager Sharon Jackson announced she had called in an independent investigator to look into the allegations. That investigator was Portland attorney Jonathan Goodman, who spent the remainder of October and part of November looking into the claims outlined in the anonymous letter.
Goodman recently advised the town of Fryeburg that his conclusion was that the officers had committed no wrongdoing in the matter. Shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday, Jackson sent out a press release announcing that the officers were back on the job.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Fryeburg officers cleared of wrongdoing in alleged party
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“no wrongdoing” does not mean the party didn’t happen. What about the pictures?
A picture of someone dancing on the hood of a police vehicle with a beer in her hand is ok in Fryeburg. Wow! This is the place to be a cop.
Of course they were cleared.
Sure because all the LEO’s in Maine are never guilty of any wrong doing.
Did anyone actually expect anything different??!!
Not even a disorderly conduct charge for the town employee who was drinking on top of the police car????? Guess that is not against the law . Ok people lets all get some beer and dance on top of police cars and see what happens.
BLUE WALL .
why am i not surprised?
Did you expect anything different. I cannot remember when the last time a police officer was found guilty by his peers. We all know that this happened but no one seems to care. What a joke even the police are becoming. The tax payers of Fryeburg must be so thrilled with this.
Fryeburg police officers “”encouraged “””teenagers to drink beer that, HaHa Ha, that would be a first!!!! encouraging teenagers. I think that age group is quite capable of their decision to drink or not to drink!! nice try though, trying to smear the police! I am not in favor of what happened, but get the story real OK
Really is this not surprising. Of course they are doing nothing wrong. Cops never do
So what really did happen?