North Woods Lawless IV: a "sham" hearing

For those following the "North Woods Lawless" story, a belated update on last week's "hearing" by the Maine legislature's Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee. For anyone who has read the story and its follow ups -- with multiple corroborating witnesses alleging a pattern of misconduct and even lawbreaking by undercover game warden Bill Livezey, the hearing was amazing to watch, a case study in how not to conduct a real inquiry.

Here's the Portland Press Herald editorial board's take yesterday, bluntly describing it as a sham. "Only handpicked witnesses were called to testify, and they presented only one side of the story," they noted, along with the fact there was no pubic comment, no adversarial questioning, and no asking of even the most obvious follow up, like "how do you know the allegations are untrue, since you have just said you will not investigate them?" In summary: "a legislative committee spent a few hours giving a government agency a chance to hide from public scrutiny."

To this may be added the fact that the proceedings -- led by Sen. Paul Davis of Sangerville -- completely ignored all the follow-up stories, in which the allegations against Livezey were echoed by witnesses to his operations in four other counties across the state, and by defense attorneys involved in a fresh case in Washington County. Are all of these people lying? Wouldn't legislators or Chief Warden Joel Wilkinson like to know? How would they if neither conducts an investigation? None of these questions were asked and, indeed, Davis announced at the end that he would not be pursuing further into the matter, even as Wilkinson declared he would not be investigating the accusations against Livezey.

Nor did anyone challenge Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock's extraordinary claim that the entire story was "fabricated," an assertion for which he offered no evidence at all. Note that he didn't say all the people interviewed from Allagash were lying, rather he asserted that the story itself had been invented. For this to be true I would have had to either invent people who do not exist or have invented what they said. Neither is, of course, the case, which is why he would have been unable to support his assertion, had anyone actually pressed him for such.

For those curious which lawmakers participated in this particular variety of legislative oversight, here's a list of the committee's members:

Senator Paul T. Davis, Sr. (R-Piscataquis), Chair
Senator Scott W. Cyrway (R-Kennebec)
Senator Susan Deschambault (D-York)
Representative Robert S. Duchesne (D-Hudson), Chair
Representative Roland Danny Martin (D-Sinclair)
Representative Stanley Byron Short, Jr. (D-Pittsfield)
Representative Robert W. Alley, Sr. (D-Beals)
Representative Dale J. Crafts (R-Lisbon)*
Representative Stephen J. Wood (R-Greene)
Representative Roger E. Reed (R-Carmel)
Representative Patrick W. Corey (R-Windham)
Representative Gary L. Hilliard (R-Belgrade)
Representative Peter A. Lyford (R-Eddington)
Representative Matthew Dana II (Passamaquoddy Tribe)

[Update, 6/9/16: Rep. Jeffery Evangelos blasts his legislative colleagues for the conduct of the hearing in this OpEd.]

[Update, 6/10/16: Kennebec Journal columnist Douglas Rooks also blasts the hearing, suggests wardens shouldn't have undercover ops at all. The column is syndicated in the Times-Record, Portsmouth Herald and other papers.]

[Update, 6/15/16: A legislator and former aide to the U.S. House's judiciary committee writes this OpEd arguing that the warden service's undercover operations require real oversight.]

[Update, 6/17/16: While the speaker of the Maine House called on them to hold a hearing, the legislature's Right to Know advisory committee will not be taking up the Warden Service's handling of our public records request, at least not in their next meeting.]

[Update, 6/22/16: Former Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine head George Smith has again called for changes at the warden service in his latest Kennebec Journal / Morning Sentinel column.]

[Update, 6/23/16: At their monthly meeting, the Right to Know committee has voted unanimously to hold a hearing on the warden's handling of our public records request on July 20.]

North Woods Lawless III: undercover warden accused of improprities in seven counties

Tomorrow, the Maine legislature's Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee is holding hearings on the accusations in "North Woods Lawless", the May 8 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation I wrote on a controversial Maine Warden Service undercover operation and dramatic raid in the remote northern Maine town of Allagash.

But in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I have this follow up story in which seven witnesses and two defense attorneys come forward with allegations of similar behavior in four more operations led by the same undercover warden, Bill Livezey, who conducted the Allagash operation. This is in addition to the events in Fryeburg a decade ago in which Livezey's conduct was parsed by a judge and in York County more recently, the subject of this story published May 13 by my Press Herald colleague Scott Dolan (with an assist from yours truly.)

That's a total of seven operations based in seven Maine counties (and the state of Pennsylavnia) in which Livezey is accused of similar misconduct.

You won't hear from critics at tomorrow's hearing; the legislators are calling only three witnesses: the chief warden, the warden's boss (the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner), and the person at the attorney general's office who is tasked with assisting in public records requests, Brenda Kielty, who features in a related controversy over the wardens' flouting of public records law during our reporting of this story. (On this, don't miss the entire Kafka-esque email chain, posted here.)

For more background on all of this, see my previous post, "North Woods Lawless II," encapsulating the complex events from May 8 to May 19. There's also this landing page for "North Woods Lawless" at the Press Herald.

[Update, 6/6/16: The hearing was, in the words of the Press Herald editorial board, a "sham."]

North Woods Lawless II: From official denial to legislative hearings

My investigation of a controversial Maine Warden Service undercover operation and large-scale raid in the far northern Maine town of Allagash has gotten plenty of attention in the two weeks since it appeared, from personal slander from Maine Gov. Paul LePage to an announcement of legislative hearings on the issues raised in the piece. Having trouble keeping up? Here's a recap:

May 8: "North Woods Lawless" appears, with sidebars on past problems with MWS undercover operations, their success in improving routine interactions with the public and their senior brass's flaunting of public records law and the entire, Kafka-esque email chain between ourselves, the wardens, our attorney, their attorney at the Attorney General's office, and the AG's public records ombudsman, Brenda Kielty.

May 9: In the morning, Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville and co-chair of the legislative committee that oversees the wardens, tells me he is demanding answers from their boss, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock; he notes if he doesn't get answers, he may turn to another committee he sits on, Government Oversight, which has subpoena powers. I appear on WCSH-6 and WLBZ-2 to discuss the piece. At 5:30 that evening the wardens issue a short statement denouncing the piece as misleading (but without saying why), declaring that "the majority of Maine's law-abiding citizens" support the Allagash operation (without evidence), and promising a full response in article form in a few days. 

May 10: In the morning, Gov. LePage appears on a WVOM radio talk show, makes some slanderous statements about yours truly, proclaims the article to be a whole lot of nothing....and then proceeds to say how troubled he is by each and every major allegation and finding in the piece; LePage says his office is going to investigate.  Several lawmakers call for legislative investigations of the allegations in the story, including Judiciary Committee co-chair Rep. Barry Hobbins, D-Saco, whose committee oversees public records law. Former Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine head George Smith weighs in, as does the Press Herald/Kennebec Journal editorial board.

May 11: In the afternoon, Gov. LePage's communications director, Peter Steele contacts the Press Herald's Opinion Page Editor, Greg Kesitch, demanding he print a 2800 word response from the wardens in the next day's edition. "I will not accept a 3,000 word submission from anyone. I don't have the space and that's not what the opinion pages are for," Kesitch writes back. "If there are errors in the story you should communicate with the reporter and editor (copied here) to discuss corrections. The opinion pages is not where we correct errors of fact. I would be interested in a piece that defends the wardens' service policies, but that can be done in a regular length column." 


Steele doesn't respond, but shortly thereafter, Gov. LePage issues an official press release ranting against, yes, Colin Woodard and declaring the Allagash investigation to be "one of the most outrageous examples of the Portland Press Herald’s complete and total lack of journalistic principles." He then goes on to an official, fact-free rant. "Let’s be perfectly clear: Colin Woodard is not a journalist; he is an activist and a novelist who never lets the facts get in the way of his fictionalized stories. Sadly, Woodard is the kind of guy the media elite celebrate as a Pulitzer Prize-worthy author." (For those just joining the program: I am a journalist; I've never written a novel; I've never published a story which was found to be incorrect; and I've never won a Pulitzer Prize as an author (though I was a Pulitzer finalist for my journalism this year.))


Shortly thereafter, the Maine Warden Service issues their 2800 word response to "North Woods Lawless" which makes a number of false claims, claims things I (accurately) reported sources saying as being things I myself said, and puts forward some details of their side of the story -- details they refused to share in the months we were reporting the story. We respond that evening with a detailed point-by-point response to some of MWS' more blatant falsehoods.


May 12: I appear for an extended live interview with Ken and Mike's popular morning politics show on talk radio station WGAN, further setting the record straight.

May 13: The Press Herald reports allegations by several York County men who say they had nearly identical experiences as targets of another undercover investigation by the same warden operative at the center of the Allagash operation, Bill Livezey. Livezey, they claim, drank heavily and operated his vehicle while drunk. The story -- reported by Scott Dolan with additional reporting by me -- also revealed that a judge had admonished prosecutors for concealing Livezey's identity from defense attorneys, which prevented them from learning he had run into serious credibility problems in case involving a guide in Fryeburg; the judge had dismissed all charges against the one defendant who had taken his case to trial.


The Warden Service responds with a truly bizarre press release, one Mainers everywhere should read. In it, the wardens purport to speak for all the people of Maine, and denounce the story, saying that while it had "contributions by Colin Woodard" it "was produced by a new author, perhaps as another attempt at credibility." The Press Herald, the law enforcement agency declares, "has taken on a personality that no longer reflects Maine values. Maine people are different. We have strong core values. We respect our friends and neighbors. We tell the truth." The statement then goes on to make three substantive points, all of them untruthful: that the story didn't quote the judge in the Fryeburg case's fuller statement (it did, further down the piece); that by 5pm the paper hadn't reported a shooting incident in New Hampshire (it had, at 8:03 that morning) and that state police had issued a cease and disist order against one of our sources that afternoon for harassing a warden by telephone (which would be rather a strange thing to do, since said source had started his sentence at the York County Jail at 8:30 that morning and could make no outgoing calls for the next 22 days.) The wardens then refused to answer questions about the latter incident.


May 15: Press Herald staff columnist Bill Nemitz weighs in.


May 19: Lawmakers announce they will hold legislative hearings into the conduct of Warden Service undercover operations, with Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport saying "Folks deserve to have an understanding, to know what transpired." House Speaker Mike Eves, D-North Berwick, promises a "thorough inquiry." Sen. Davis says he will also call public records ombudsperson Brenda Kielty to testify about the public records side of the story. The wardens say they will cooperate. The hearings will be held in the next two weeks, legislative leaders say.


PS - There's now a landing page for "North Woods Lawless" at the Press Herald.

[Update, May 31, 2016: Further developments -- including accusations against the same undercover warden in connection with another four operations -- detailed here.]

North Woods Lawless

An investigation I've been working on for the past six months and more went to print in the Maine Sunday Telegram yesterday: "North Woods Lawless," which probes a controversial two-year undercover investigation and dramatic raid by the Maine Warden Service in the remote northern Maine town of Allagash. The raid was filmed by the Animal Planet television series "North Woods Law," leading some in the town to suspect the wardens of playing to the cameras.

In the story, residents allege the undercover agent padded evidence, invented incidents, and gave alcohol to suspects. We also report that the agent provided guns, ammunition, transportation, and a searchlight to a man he was enticing to night poach on nine nights, an that by his own account the agent shot and killed the first deer. Wardens also improperly seized a 64-year old woman's home canned fruits an vegetables and, by her account, never returned most of them; after all charges were dropped against her, wardens called her seasonal employer, an event that resulted in her not being rehired.

Meanwhile, the Warden Service refused to be interviewed, canceling an in-person appointment hours after scheduling it, and ultimately refused to answer written questions as well, referring all contact through their attorney, an assistant Attorney General. They also spurned public records law, failing to provide their full correspondence about area filming with the producers of "North Woods Law" and leading to multiple complaints to the state's public records ombudsman, who is awkwardly also an assistant Attorney General. We posted the entire email chain of our six-months-and-counting effort to secure compliance online for your enjoyment.

The story package also includes two other sidebars, one on apparently successful reforms of day-to-day operations by Chief Warden Joel Wilkinson, the other on the service's history of undercover operations controversies.

In tomorrow's Portland Press Herald, I have this follow up story, wherein the state senator who co-chairs the warden's legislative oversight committee says he is demanding answers from the warden's boss, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock, intimating that he might call for a formal investigation if he is not satisfied with their response. There's also a statement from the Wardens -- posted at 5:30 this evening -- insisting the article is inaccurate and also, strangely, that the "majority of law-abiding Maine citizens and visitors" are "wholeheartedly" in support of their actions in the Allagash. They promise not to answer questions, but rather to present an article of their own, which I expect they will want the news media to publish.

Meanwhile, the story has been picked up by the Associated Press, Maine Public Broadcasting, and Maine's largest television broadcasts, NBC affiliates WCSH-6 (Portland) an WLBZ-2 (Bangor), who had me as a guest this evening.

This story, as we say at the Press Herald, will be updated.

[Update: 5/21/16: A day-by-day, blow-by-blow update of the past two weeks of "North Woods Lawless" can be found here.]

[Update: 5/31/16: And more updates here.]