Court reviewing panel’s murder case report

PORTLAND – Maine’s highest court is reviewing a case on whether the findings of an independent commission looking into allegations of misconduct in a 19-year-old murder case should be open to the public.

The case involves Dennis Dechaine, the one-time farmer who is serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry of Bowdoin.

Dechaine’s case has generated controversy over the years as supporters have contended that he is innocent and was unfairly convicted. Others say he is guilty and got a fair shake in court.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to take up an appeal in January on whether an independent panel that looked into the case should be able to keep its records out of the public eye. The ruling will have no bearing on Dechaine’s attempts to get a new trial.

The commission – composed of retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Eugene Beaulieu and Bangor lawyers Charles Abbott and Marvin Glazier – was created in 2004 at the request of Attorney General Steven Rowe.

The panel investigated allegations that prosecutors and police misled the jury, altered notes, ignored alternative suspects and destroyed evidence in the case. In August 2006, the commission said it found no evidence of misconduct, but its four-page report was not accompanied by any documents or notes.

James Moore, a retired federal agent from Brunswick who has published two books in support of Dechaine, wants the commission’s records made public. He sent letters to Rowe and the commission members, demanding documents under the state Freedom of Access Act.

When he didn’t get an answer, Moore appealed to Cumberland County Superior Court. Superior Court Justice Robert Crowley ruled that the commission did not fall under the right-to-know law because it was not a government agency, was independent from government control and received no government funding.

Moore in August appealed Crowley’s ruling to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

“I don’t know why they are fighting so hard to hide it,” Moore said.

In a brief to the law court, attorney John Cole, who represents Charles Abbott, likened the commission to a public interest group, so its findings would not be subject to the right-to-know law.

“The investigation was independent, and the three individuals were not in any way influenced by the Office of the Attorney General, law enforcement officials or any other person,” Cole wrote. “An independent and impartial review is not a government function.”

The Maine Civil Liberties Union has received permission from the court to file a brief in support of Moore. The MCLU is concerned that by allowing the commission’s records to be private, the court would give government agencies a loophole to skirt the Freedom of Access Act.

“The government can’t delegate out functions … to avoid the public’s right to know, whether it is federal energy policy or the local town budget,” said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the MCLU.