Commissioners grill Reynolds on media leaks > Sheriff defends need for extensive internal investigation to identify `snakes’ who made accusations

BANGOR — Penobscot County Sheriff Edward Reynolds faced aggressive questioning from county commissioners Tuesday as he vowed to find what one commissioner referred to as “the snakes” in his department who are leaking information to the media.

“If we don’t clear this mess up, it will destroy the department,” Reynolds told the commissioners.

“I think the department is stronger than that,” Commissioner Peter Baldacci answered.

“Well, I don’t,” said the sheriff.

Also on Tuesday, District Attorney R. Christopher Almy agreed to turn over phone records from his office that Reynolds requested as part of the internal investigation.

Almy said he thought the sheriff’s request for county phone records was justified, but said he also thought it would be good policy if in the future the sheriff issued such requests in writing.

With two of his four detectives working on the case, Reynolds was questioned by Commissioner Baldacci about the reasons for the extensive investigation.

“I’m concerned that we are devoting so much time and so many resources to this investigation that seems more personal than a matter of public good,” Baldacci said.

Reynolds’ search was prompted in October when he says someone told the media about an attorney general’s investigation into allegations that someone in the sheriff’s department tipped off a suspected drug dealer to a pending search warrant by the state police.

The state police trooper who conducted the search at Dale Ross’ Bradford home reported his concerns to his superiors. Eventually the Attorney General’s Office was notified and conducted an investigation.

The Attorney General’s Office cleared the sheriff’s department and its Chief Deputy Glenn Ross of any wrongdoing. It was indicated when the investigation was concluded that one of the state trooper’s confidential informants was responsible for tipping Dale Ross to the pending search of his property for drugs. Since then, however, Reynolds has vowed publicly to find those responsible for spreading the “false information” about Chief Deputy Ross to the media.

Baldacci, along with a number of reporters, attempted to get the sheriff to discuss the “false information” he claims was spread by someone in his department and reported by the media.

Baldacci stressed that all he was aware of were news reports saying that Ross and the sheriff’s department were under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.

“That was true I believe,” Baldacci said.

When asked repeatedly as to what false information the “tipster” was spreading, the sheriff finally replied, “I don’t know.”

Reynolds stressed, however, that he saw the accusations against Chief Deputy Ross and his department as character assassinations and said those who tipped off the media had committed no less than treason.

Reynolds took exception to reports that the internal investigation was affecting morale in the department. The sheriff presented the commissioners with a letter from recently promoted Deputy Sgt. Rick Canaar who claimed that morale was not low and that it was important that Reynolds’ investigation continue.

Commissioner Tom Davis aggressively supported the sheriff’s investigation saying innocent county employees deserve to have their names cleared.

“If you have nothing to hide, why should the investigation bother anyone,” Davis said.

He said Reynolds had an obligation to weed out the “snakes within his department.”

Commissioner Richard Blanchard pressed Reynolds to complete the investigation expeditiously to which Reynolds replied that he might be able to do that if people stopped “stonewalling” him and began to cooperate with him.

At an impromptu press conference outside the commissioners chambers, Reynolds continued to take issue with the media saying that he knew that WLBZ-Channel 2 and the Bangor Daily News had people from his department “feeding” them information. He again vowed to find out who the “leaks” were.

Also on Tuesday, Reynolds said he had requested from District Attorney Almy two anonymous letters that he said were linked to his investigation. One letter was sent to Almy and the other to the state police in October. No one would reveal the contents of the letters, but at least one reportedly contained some type of misconduct allegations against members of the sheriff’s department.

Despite concerns from two of the commissioners, they acknowledged Tuesday that there was little they could do about the investigation.

Last week Reynolds stated that he answered to the governor not to the commissioners. While Baldacci acknowledged that on Tuesday, he reminded the sheriff that he also answered to the people who elected him and paid county taxes.

Commissioner Davis, however, countered that Baldacci had not been elected sheriff of Penobscot County, “Ed Reynolds was.” In reality, the commissioners have authority only over the sheriff’s budget and have no right to direct Reynolds in the investigation.