PARIS — At a special meeting Tuesday morning, the Oxford County Commission met again behind closed doors with its attorney to discuss the future of Sheriff Christopher Wainwright and adjourned without commenting.
Attorney Amy Dieterich declined to make a statement on the commissioners’ behalf.
Commissioners were in executive session for little more than an hour.
Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright File photo
Wainwright, a resident of Canton who is in his second term as sheriff, has come under fire recently for a series of missteps. In May, commissioners reprimanded him after he asked a deputy to go easy on an acquaintance for a traffic citation and then overstated his authority when the deputy reported the incident to his supervisor.
At the time, commissioners rebuked Wainwright for his actions. Calling it “a close call” and saying they had “no good choices,” they said it would be less disruptive to keep Wainwright on a short rope, rather than asking the governor to remove him from office.
In their May statement, Commissioners Steven Merrill of Norway, Timothy Turner of Buckfield and David Duguay of Byron said another incident could result in sending such a request to Gov. Janet Mills, who by state law is the only person who can remove a sheriff from office.
“He needs to gain a clearer perspective on workplace dynamics and set his pride aside so that he can regain the trust of the employees of his office,” commissioners said in a statement then. “Based on our conversation in executive session this morning, we believe that he is capable of doing that. Until he proves us wrong, the commissioners reserve their right to send a complaint to the governor regarding these events. In the event that the sheriff falls short of his commitments, or engages in further conduct unbefitting of his office, the county commissioners will promptly revisit this matter.”
Wainwright later appointed two former policemen as school resource officers and issued them a badge and a firearm, even though their police credentials had expired.
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that in 2020 and 2021 Wainwright sold firearms from the evidence room and received credit for those purchases, without the knowledge of county officials and outside the financial scrutiny of those officials.
The Oxford County Administrator’s Office has no record of the sales, County Administrator Donald Durrah has said.
Commissioners have since changed the purchasing policy to prevent such a transaction from happening again.
While commissioners did not vote to seek the sheriff’s removal then, they also did not say Wainwright had their support and backing.
Commissioners will likely revisit the topic at a later date, but Durrah said no future meeting date has been set.
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