The agency that can revoke the certifications of police in Maine is looking into the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office. What prompted its probe is not yet official, but the county has hired a lawyer to represent the sheriff.
The Maine Criminal Justice Academy’s complaint review committee investigates reports of police misconduct and recommends to the academy’s board what corrective or disciplinary action it should take against officers, if any. Its operations are usually confidential, but the Bangor Daily News was able to confirm the review because of a public purchase made by Oxford County: to hire a lawyer to represent Sheriff Christopher Wainwright in an academy case.
The academy is currently not pursuing discipline but rather gathering information, said Wainwright’s attorney, Jonathan Berry. When a reporter asked him if the academy was looking at potentially disciplining the sheriff, Berry said he hadn’t seen an official complaint. Asked why the sheriff needed an attorney if he wasn’t at risk of being disciplined, Berry said he wasn’t privy to conversations at the county level about why he had been hired.
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“My words, no one else’s, but to summarize it’s an administrative inquiry. The statute requires certain disclosures as to county law enforcement personnel,” Berry said. “There’s some question as to the status of certain individuals, when they were hired and in what capacity, certifications, trainings, and so on and so forth. We’re trying to get to the bottom of that to the best of our ability.”
When asked if the academy’s complaint review committee had completed its investigation, he said, “Not to my knowledge.” He said he did not know how many others at the sheriff’s office were under review.
“It’s not a disciplinary process for anyone, not just the sheriff,” Berry continued. “This is the mechanism that the MCJA employs to develop information, to understand matters where there may be lost records or confusion or whatever it might be.”
The Bangor Daily News wrote in May about how the Oxford County commissioners approved in 2018 the hiring of men armed with guns and wearing badges to work as school resource officers in local schools. But records from the academy, which also trains and certifies officers, showed one went nearly four years without being certified as a law enforcement officer, and the other had still not taken the required exams to become certified.
The men had been uncertified despite Hiram-based School Administrative District 55 and Rumford-based Regional School Unit 10 signing contracts with the sheriff’s office saying they would receive certified officers capable of carrying out any duties customarily performed by law enforcement. No one can work as a law enforcement officer without completing the training required to obtain a certificate.
Former Oxford County Sheriff James Theriault hired the two in 2018, according to the commissioners’ meeting minutes. Wainwright has renewed contracts with the school districts ever since.
While the men worked in schools, it appeared that the sheriff’s office also had not sent in their required employment paperwork to the academy. Maine requires documentation of employment because, even if people are certified as officers, they have to be employed by a law enforcement agency to carry out police duties.
The two men said the academy gave them the wrong information about how much time they had to take a final exam, but a March 2021 email shows the academy explaining to Chief Deputy James Urquhart the steps needed to ensure the men got certified.
One of the men disclosed to the BDN on May 16 that there was “now an internal investigation ongoing at the MCJA, and I will no longer comment.”
But Berry said he could not get into specifics when asked if the academy was looking into any issues concerning those hired as school resource officers.
“The MCJA has questions that long predate Sheriff Wainwright’s tenure,” Berry said. “Because there are personnel questions, it is confidential, so I can’t really get into the who’s, the what’s, the where’s, and the why’s. But I have been able to discern, at least so far, that this is not a disciplinary process at this juncture.”
He continued by saying that Wainwright is “interested in working with the MCJA to make sure any questions they have are answered to their satisfaction.”
It is not yet known how much the county will pay in legal expenses, said Oxford County Administrator Donald Durrah, who declined to specify why the sheriff needed an attorney.
“I’m not sure I can give you that information because it may be client privileged,” Durrah said.
Several weeks ago, “I was made aware of a personnel matter, and, as I discussed it with my legal team, that was their legal recommendation,” Durrah said. “I know for this particular case that we have approved to pay for the sheriff’s representation.”
Asked whether the attorney was representing the county’s interests or the sheriff’s interests, Berry said he believed “the interests are aligned unless or until I figure out otherwise. To be fair I’m still trying to discern precisely what it is that the MCJA needs.”
The review comes at a critical time for the sheriff who was recently investigated for asking a deputy to go easy on a case. The deputy, who was uneasy with the request, reported it, prompting the sheriff to yell at the deputy and overstate his authority as sheriff.
The Oxford County commissioners decided in May to give Wainwright a second chance and not recommend to the governor that he be removed from office.
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Then on Aug. 8 the BDN published a story showing how Wainwright had sold dozens of guns from evidence, including some with unknown origins, in 2021 without telling other county officials and apparently without retaining any financial records of the deal.
An email on Thursday to Wainwright with questions about the academy case prompted a reply message saying he was out of the office.
While it is possible for the academy to discipline someone for working as a police officer without a valid certification, the academy could not confirm any ongoing investigation.
“If there were a case, I could not confirm it, as it is deemed confidential by statute until the Board of Trustees renders a final action,” said E. Donald Finnegan, training coordinator at the academy. “That action is deemed public information.”
