BANGOR, Maine — Theft charges against former Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith were dismissed Monday by prosecutors due to insufficient evidence as his trial was about to begin, according to the dismissal form filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Smith, 63, of Lubec still faces misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct and driving to endanger in connection with a Jan. 6, 2015, incident in Lubec with a woman he had previously accused of assaulting him.
He could be tried on those charges next month. The theft case was unrelated to the charges of reckless conduct and driving to endanger.
Norman Toffolon, assistant district attorney for Washington and Hancock counties, said Monday that District Attorney Matthew Foster had concluded the theft case against Smith could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard in a criminal case to prove guilt.
Smith was indicted May 4, 2015, by the Washington County grand jury on one count each of theft by unauthorized taking, theft by misapplication, both Class B crimes, and misuse of entrusted property, a Class D crime, following an investigation by the Maine attorney general’s office in 2013.
All of those charges were dismissed Monday.
The standard for indictment is by a preponderance of the evidence, which means it is more likely than not that a defendant committed a crime.
“To prove Mr. Smith was guilty of the crimes he was indicted on, we would have had to prove he was aware of a well-defined set of standards set by the Department of Corrections on what money from the inmate benefits fund could and could not be used for,” Toffolon said Monday. “We didn’t feel those standards were clear enough to meet the high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Efforts to reach Don Brown, Smith’s attorney, were unsuccessful Monday.
Brown said earlier this month at a motion hearing that Smith had spent money from the Washington County Jail inmate benefit account in a way that was similar to expenditures by other sheriffs in the state.
Smith was accused of taking $11,700 from the inmate benefit account between January 2007, just after he first took office, and December 2012. He allegedly spent the money on gifts for deputies, charitable donations, meals, flowers, uniforms and other items that did not directly benefit inmates, according to a previously published report.
Use of funds from the inmate benefit account at the 48-bed Washington County Jail came under scrutiny more than four years ago. Funds from the account, which contains revenue from jail commissary sales and fees from telephone service for inmates, are to be used to directly benefit inmates and not for a jail’s operating budget or other purposes, according to state Department of Corrections jail standards.
Smith had received a report from an administrative assistant in October 2012 indicating suspicious expenditures were being paid from the inmate benefit fund, and he hired an attorney to investigate, according to a previously published report.
Waterville attorney Peter Marchesi said in his 28-page report that his investigation could not justify the purchase of cellphones, a leather motorcycle jacket, dresses, jewelry and lingerie, among other items paid for with inmate funds.
In December 2012, Smith suspended Karina Richardson, the jail clerk, and Robert Gross, the jail administrator, and recommended to county commissioners that both be discharged. Gross resigned not long after being suspended. The commissioners held a disciplinary hearing in January 2013 and approved Smith’s recommendation to fire Richardson.
At about the same time, the commissioners also asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate jail operations.
Meanwhile, Richardson took her case to the state Board of Arbitration and Conciliation, which ruled in October 2014 that she should not have been terminated, but rather only suspended without pay for six months.
Richardson and Gross claimed that Smith approved all expenditures from the fund. Smith denied that claim.
Smith lost a re-election bid in 2014 to current Sheriff Barry Curtis. In May 2015, Curtis said steps were put in place in 2013 to change how expenditures from the inmate benefit fund are handled.
“The sheriff, the chief deputy or the jail administrator can approve the expenditure of funds but we don’t have access to the checkbook,” the sheriff said last year. “Checks can only be written by the county treasurer or the assistant treasurer.”
Smith’s cases were moved to Penobscot County out of concerns that an impartial jury could not be seated in Washington County.
If he had been convicted of the theft crimes, Smith faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000. He also could have been ordered to pay restitution.
If convicted in the case involving reckless conduct and driving to endanger, he faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.