AUGUSTA — The name of a former chief of the Maine State Police has been removed from a list of “Legendary Troopers” after his conviction Tuesday of unlawful sexual contact with a young child.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, confirmed Saturday that Andrew Demers, 74, of New Gloucester, who served as chief of the state police from 1987 to 1993, is no longer listed among the other so-honored troopers.
In an email sent Friday, Maine State Police Col. Robert A. Williams informed troopers and retired troopers of his decision and said he had waited “until all due process was afforded him” before taking any action.
“Since [Demers] arrest in March, many people have suggested and at times demanded I take some sort of action against the former colonel,” Williams said. “As easy as it would be to act purely on emotion, especially considering the embarrassment he has brought to the agency, I have chosen to continue to live by our core values of fairness, integrity, compassion and excellence.”
Williams said that because Demers “was a respected leader and mentor to many in the state police” and “made many positive contributions to the agency,” he will not “expunge him from our history.”
But he said that he would rescind Demers’ Legendary Trooper Award because he “has stopped living up [to] those high standards that we as an agency expect from someone who has acquired such a status.”
Demers served 26 years with the Maine State Police and is the only trooper to be named “Trooper of the Year” twice. Demers held the position of chief for six years until he retired in 1993.
In 2003, when he was named a “Legendary Trooper,” he was the most decorated officer in state police history, the Sun Journal reported at the time.
Demers, who was indicted in April on a Class A gross sexual assault charge, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the lesser felony of Class B unlawful sexual contact. Justice Thomas Warren sentenced Demers to serve four years of a five-year prison sentence. He is scheduled to turn himself in on Veterans Day at the Cumberland County Jail.
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