Probe clears Lisbon police

From the Lewiston SunJournal:

Probe clears Lisbon police

By T.S. Chamberland , Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

LISBON - Allegations of illegal activity by Police Chief David Brooks and the Police Department are unfounded, according to a letter from the state Attorney General's Office read at Tuesday night's Town Council meeting.

Among the allegations by Cote and School Committee member Janice Comber were giving protection and free passage to drug runners and dealers, notifying drug dealers of searches by drug-sniffing dogs in schools, dealing drugs from the Police Department's back door and Brooks "skimming off the top of drug money profits,"

Cote and a group named Concerned Citizens of Lisbon questioned the size and expense of Lisbon's Police Department and publicly stated its discontent through an online blog called the Lisbon Reporter, Brooks said, citing copies of the correspondence from the group.

According to the AG's report, Cote told the AG's office in an interview that the source of his information about illegal police activities was "hearsay and circumstantial information."

Town Manager Stephen Eldridge, who read the AG's letter at the meeting, said, "Not once have any of these (accusers) come to my office and asked if this information was true, and not once did any of them approach our chief and talk to him and ask him if these accusations are true."

"There's a lot of people, a lot more than is in this room, that feels and has seen the same things that I have, and I will be getting into a lot more of this in the future," Cote said.

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