The bitter race for Hancock County sheriff came to a head this week, when outgoing Sheriff Scott Kane, a Republican, shared a website under his own byline accusing his party’s nominee to replace him, Corey Bagley, of steering a county contract to his father.
The site, entitled “Good Old Boys Exposed,” which Kane posted to Facebook on Monday, also takes aim at County Commissioner William Clark, the county’s longest-serving sheriff before his 2014 retirement and one of Bagley’s most prominent backers. Voters will choose between Bagley and Kane’s pick, Democratic sheriff’s Lt. Dakota Dupuis, in Tuesday’s election.
The candidates and their allies have been slinging misconduct allegations for weeks in one of the region’s most bitter contests in decades, and one that has scrambled the usual partisan lines. Kane, a staunch Dupuis ally who has featured in multiple controversies himself over 11 years as sheriff, has publicly battled Clark since Bagley’s 2023 departure as chief deputy.
“I think people can see through what this really is: a smear job from people who are desperate,” Bagley said. “Things aren’t going their way and they need to do what they can to try to make me look bad.”
The website shows images of Bagley and Clark smiling beside a banner reading: “Same people. Same circle. Same pattern?” Its central allegation dates to Bagley’s six-year assignment at the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, where he supervised the Downeast Drug Task Force.
In 2014, Clark’s final year as sheriff, the county awarded a four-year drug seizure storage contract to Bagley’s father, Rudy Bagley. The seized assets, including a side-by-side, were moved from Ellsworth to Rudy Bagley’s Hancock property and stayed there until 2018.
The county paid Rudy Bagley $9,750 during that time, between $250 and $300 a month, according to invoices Kane published online and provided to the Bangor Daily News. Kane said neither he nor the drug agency authorized the arrangement.
“I believe it was a direct conflict of interest,” Kane said. “Bagley made the arrangement, his father benefited financially, and I was left not knowing about the arrangement until MDEA command staff alerted me to it.”
Bagley said Clark, while sheriff, made the arrangements with his father, and that Kane cherry-picked documents to imply misconduct. The property was moved because the Ellsworth location was compromised and cost $500 per month, which county officials discussed at a March 2014 public commissioners meeting, he said.
Drug agency officials wouldn’t comment on contract specifics, directing the BDN to the sheriff’s office because the county paid it.
Bagley was promoted twice after the alleged conflict of interest came to light, first to lieutenant and then to chief deputy. Kane, who picked Bagley as his chief deputy in 2022, said he had no hand in either promotion because they were contractually stipulated.
Whether Bagley made the storage arrangement for his family’s financial gain or didn’t recognize the conflict of interest, the deal is “significantly troubling,” Kane said.
The website’s other allegations revolve around Clark, who is accused of using inmate labor for landscaping at Woodbine Cemetery in violation of department protocols. Kane and the county’s jail administrator reported the arrangement to the Maine attorney general’s office in 2015, requesting a criminal investigation.
Because Clark had already left office, no probe was launched, according to Kane and documents uploaded to the site. Clark declined to comment on the accusations, saying they would likely be addressed in court.
A lawyer has reviewed the website, Clark said Tuesday, and sees a “strong likelihood that he [Kane] has not only committed a criminal violation of improper dissemination of that information, but he’s also put the county and himself at a personal civil liability.”
The bad blood between the current and former sheriffs runs deep. When Bagley left in 2023, Clark accused Kane of forcing him out to rehire his brother, Patrick Kane, as chief deputy. Kane said Bagley retired voluntarily.
The two have since clashed at commission meetings and on Facebook, including a 2025 spat over the sheriff’s police dog budget. Kane endorsed Dupuis over his fellow Republican and did not seek a fourth term himself. Clark endorsed Bagley.
Adding to the animosity, four Democratic state legislators made the extraordinary decision to cross party lines and back the Republican. Among them is Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, who has filed notice of a civil rights claim against Kane over a 2025 electioneering charge that his office pursued and a prosecutor later dismissed.
Sheriff’s office employees have also involved themselves in the acrimonious race. Lt. Brian K. Archer II posted an AI-generated meme of Clark with an elongated, Pinocchio-style nose, which he has since deleted and described as “political satire.”
Dupuis, 31, who registered as a Democrat in 2024, has tried to distance himself from Kane. He said Bagley’s supporters have repeatedly shared “inaccurate or misleading” claims about him. Once the election is over, he said, the department needs to look past politics.
“It’s unfortunate how divisive this race has become,” Dupuis said Wednesday.