MACHIAS, Maine — Shortly before midnight Tuesday, Republican challenger Barry Curtis held a lead of more than 300 votes over incumbent Donnie Smith in the race for Washington County sheriff.
Curtis, a Cherryfield resident and former state trooper, had 2,051 votes while Smith had 1,722. Thirteen of the 49 precincts in the county had reported their results.
Smith, who was first elected sheriff of Washington County in 2006, has been a polarizing figure in the eight years he has held the position.
He has openly feuded with Maine State Police, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Ellsworth Police Department, Maine Sheriff’s Association, Washington County commissioners and the District Attorney’s office for Hancock and Washington counties, to name some of the agencies and organizations he interacts with as part of his job.
He has at times threatened to arrest officials he is feuding with and, on other occasions, has filed or threatened to file lawsuits against other agencies. He also has been on the receiving end of similar lawsuits and threats of legal action.
One such lawsuit was filed against Smith two weeks before Election Day by more than a dozen former sheriff’s department employees who assert that Smith violated their privacy rights earlier this year by releasing department personnel records that were inadvertently publicized for a brief time by the Bangor Daily News, which had obtained the information from the Maine Secretary of State’s office.
In a separate matter, a Trescott woman has notified Smith of her intent to sue him over an Oct. 8 school bus incident in Lubec. Deborah Bousquet alleges that she was wrongfully arrested and assaulted by Smith after they each responded to reports of a confrontation on a school bus. Smith alleged that Bousquet assaulted him, but she later was charged by the district attorney’s office with disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration — not with assault.
Smith and his supporters have said the former employees’ lawsuit and Bousquet’s complaint were politically motivated and timed to have the maximum impact on Tuesday’s election.
