Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department Internal Affairs Complaint‏

March 12, 2015

William Gagne, Chief Deputy Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department 2 Turner St. Auburn ME. 04210 

Dear Deputy Chief Gagne:

In reference to your response to my internal affairs complaint about Deputy Tim Kachnovich, please provide me with a specific written source (citation) to your statement that you do not have jurisdiction for the internal affairs complaint.  I would think one source would be the County Sheriff's Operations and Procedures Manual.  Another source would be the name, title,  and contact information of the attorney(s) who gave you that opinion, preferably in writing.  If there are Maine State Statutes that govern your decision, please cite those specifically.

My belief at this time is that you not only have jurisdiction, you have a moral and legal obligation to investigate according to written procedures, procedures that will protect the citizens and Deputy Kachnovich.

In the meantime, I am preparing a complaint and demand for Declaratory Judgments  for Federal Court, though that may be changed to Maine Superior Court, pending decisions from the Maine Administrative Act Court (J. Poulin). N.B. Not a single sworn statement made by me or Mr. Weaver were challenged by the Town of Livermore or Deputy Kachnovich.  Obviously, my approach to resolving conflicts is to use the simplest methods available.  If the simplest method fails, I move up to the more complicated ones, up to and including the Maine Supreme Court (e.g.., see the recent Maine Supreme Court ruling on making 911 transcripts of homicides public; and long ago, Federal court decisions on Pineland)

Last week at a Maine Traffic Safety Committee meeting, I spoke about how an information audit I conducted this past autumn on Sheriff''s Departments in five counties and about 20 police departments revealed excellent compliance by all Sheriff's Departments but miserable compliance by the most of the Police Departments. Interestingly, Brunswick P.D., Mexico P.D., and Rumford P.D. each earned a solid A.  

Please note that my original complaint with Internal Affairs stands and I've attached my court filings for the Administrative Procedures Act Hearing.  Please re-examine my original IA complaint for investigation.  

I did not allege witness tampering or party tampering or obstruction of justice, though I should be able to do that in another week, depending on the levels of interference I experience in meeting with competent, knowledgeable, and relevant witnesses.  I also did not allege violations of Antitrust laws, but those are likely a potential problem in this case.

Dwight Hines

Attached: Motion to Intervene

Copy: Forbe's Magazine

P.S.  Forbes' Magazine continues to rate Maine next to the  bottom among the states on friendliness to business.  I can't help but infer that the integrity of local law enforcement, and the fact that in our small town of Livermore we are now facing from 6 to 21 homes being foreclosed are causally, proximally relate .  I am unable to reject the Forbe's rankings of Maine.