Gov. Janet Mills of Maine on Monday declined to take the rare step of removing a sheriff accused of improprieties, including transferring guns from an evidence locker to a gun dealer without proper documentation.
Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright was also accused of failing to ensure school resource officers had the proper certifications and of urging a deputy to go easy on someone arrested for a traffic violation.
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Mills said she concluded the evidence did not meet the high hurdle of “extraordinary circumstances” required to remove a sheriff from office for the first time since 1926.
Democratic Governor of Maine Janet Mills speaks with reporters at Lewiston Town Hall in Lewiston, Maine, Thursday, October 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
“My decision here should not be seen as a vindication of Sheriff Wainwright,” she wrote. “The official report shows that he made mistakes and occasionally acted intemperately.”
Oxford County commissioners asked Mills to remove Wainwright in February. Under Maine's Constitution, the governor is the only person who can fire elected sheriffs.
In her decision, Mills concluded that the school resource officer's paperwork issue dated back to the previous sheriff and that there was no evidence that Wainwright personally benefited from the gun transaction.
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She also concluded that his underlying request for a deputy to go easy on an acquaintance whose sister was suffering from cancer was not illegal or unethical. She said the sheriff's response to a deputy who questioned his intervention — cursing and chastising the deputy — was wrong but did not constitute a pattern of behavior.
