MACHIAS, Maine — Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith now believes that the reported Oct. 29 assault on Sgt. Troy Lyons, a Washington County corrections officer, outside the county jail may have never happened.
Smith said Thursday that Lyons has been suspended and that his employment may be terminated.
Lyons was treated the night of Nov. 1 at a local hospital for lacerations to his forehead and a bruised shoulder after he reported an assault that he said occurred at approximately 10:30 p.m while he was conducting a routine perimeter check.
“After a careful investigation we believe this did not happen,” Smith told The Bangor Daily News in an email. “I have suspended Sgt. Lyons and requested he take a polygraph so we could clear him of this issue. He was advised by the union not to participate. I have requested that his employment with the County of Washington be terminated.”
The question of termination, Smith said, will be on the agenda of the Dec. 13 meeting of the Washington County Commissioners.
Smith said Friday that the investigation into the alleged assault has concluded that Lyons’ injuries were self-inflicted.
Smith said Friday he’s uncertain what motive Lyons might have had for fabricating an assault report, “other than he is out of vacation and sick time.”
So did he beat himself up?
[An image of Colonel Flagg comes to mind for those of you who remember the tv series M*A*S*H]
Do you remember the movie Liar Liar, when Jim Carrey beat himself up in the bathroom? Sounds like Lyons may be a Liar Liar.
N… N… YES! I remember, you honor! LOL
I mentioned this possibility at the outset of this incident.
A Lubec sherriff deputy pulled a similar stunt , a few years back.
lol,,yes me too.
sounds like he should be charged with a crime
This should not be a just a termination but a criminal charge of filing a false public complaint, if there is enough evidence to prove it. This is a disgrace. My assumption is if this was a citizen who filed the same type of information they would have been charged criminally. Of course, I wonder how much should have been released to the media since this is still technically a personnel matter and not a criminal investigation where someone has been charged with a crime. For a small county they seemed to be in the media a lot.
Washington County is not a small county. Have you looked on a map? And as far as charges, let them finish their investigation and conduct their meeting before wondering why charges haven’t been filed yet.
Maine has sixteen counties. While Washington County is the fifth largest geographically, it is also the third least populated. I would call it a small county.
I think Farva was referring to the population of the county, not the land area.
Washington County has a significantly smaller population than some of Maine’s cities.
Sort of not worth the bother really. Ain’t like the guy collected a bunch of money in disability or got the free ride for a couple years. Likely he’ll get canned and end up in the Produce Dept at WalMart, if they’ll have him, and that there is enough punishment for any one human to bear. Don’t assume this is the perfect world, Farva. LOL
Told ya so a week ago!
stupid is as stupid does
Don’t these people need to undergo some sort of psych eval before being put in such control over prisoners in state custody? If not, sounds like time to implement such a program.
Up until the mid 70’s they didn’t even need a HS diploma.
Ahem, mentioned this the day after it happened because what he claimed didn’t make a lot of sense. Then somebody honked and squawked at me about more guards and cameras and dangerous inmates!!! Well now… Look what he done done… LOL Coulda just pretended to trip and fall instead of all the life-changing drama.
What has he done Cat? What I’ve seen so far is an accusation from Donnie Smith. Since when in this country are you guilty until proven innocent?
In practical terms, roughly since the invention of the telegraph.
This ain’t the courtroom, Patom!, this is the Court Of Public Opinion. LOL Kee-rist, assumed guilty until proven innocent should be the motto. On the surface his story seemed a bit off — bashed up by unknown attackers in a place there wouldn’t be anybody at that time of night — so it’s easy to understand some skepticism. I wasn’t there, don’t seem anybody but him and God and maybe some hooligans were there. He say ‘Yo!” and the Sheriff say “NO!” — now where we gonna go? =)
Donnie…you made the news again….what kind of an outfit are you running anyway/
Pink. ” don’t let me get me, I’m a hazard to myself
I hope this guy does not have a uniform and gun, running around the Public Streets.
Like a polygraph tells the real story .
I am not taking a side here, but this stinks of a public flogging. If the Sheriff believes that Sgt. Lyons made a false report of a crime then Sgt. Lyons should be publicly charged as anyone else would be, but…..any conviction should occur in a court of law, not in the court of public opinion. The Sheriff has placed the county taxpayers in jeopardy of significant financial burden, should it later be determined in a court of law that the Sheriff’s allegations cannot be substantiated. I hope that I’m wrong.
It’s things like this that make me worry about prima facia evidence and capital punishment. Cops lie from time to time.
Intelligence at it’s finest! Well, I guess he won’t have to worry about trying to get a little more time off. No sick time. No vacation time. No job, most likely. D0ucheb$g!
If this is true, all I have to say is…whacko. Sort of like the weirdo that set the submarine on fire in Kittery so he could go home and check on his girlfriend…What in the world is going on these days with all of this mental illness? Geeez!
And, these are the kind of people that can pull us over on the highway?? God help us.
Since when are corrections officers (i.e., prison guards) performing traffic stops?
Wow,what kind of dough heads are they hiring to “protect and serve the people” these days?Out of sick and vacation days so he pulls this stunt,with morals and a work ethic like that its hard to say what else he lied about in his career.
why not just call out sick?risk the loss of job plus a false report could mean arrest.
You are correct that the polygraph won’t prove if he is lying about the incident or not but depending upon the questions asked it will show deception. If he is showing deception about a question, then he is probably not being completely honest about the incident. Doesn’t prove truth or lie, that’s why the poly isn’t amissible in court, but proof enough to get you fired from a position with the S.O.
LOL Used up all his vacation day he had no choice.