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Hancock County Sheriff Scott Kane ordered the criminal investigation that led to a recently dismissed charge against a Democratic lawmaker accused of illegally campaigning at a polling place.
Kane, a Republican who has held office since 2015, assigned a detective to investigate Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, after “several citizens” contacted him with concerns that the second-term lawmaker tried to influence voters in her hometown before they cast ballots in a local election race in April. That detail was described in a 50-page report outlining the findings of the investigation obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
The documents shed light on the origins of a criminal investigation into a misdemeanor crime that is rarely — if ever — prosecuted. It provided a clearer look at initial evidence in the case, which primarily consisted of interviews with witnesses who gave conflicting accounts.
A prosecutor dismissed the case last week after getting new evidence.
Milliken, a progressive member of the legislative committee overseeing police, called her prosecution politically motivated, citing her willingness to criticize law enforcement and opposition to expanding police budgets.
Last winter she faced calls to resign from law enforcement groups over a since-deleted social media post she made during Black history month about Assata Shakur, a Black activist convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper.
In 2021, Milliken called on Kane to resign in an Ellsworth American column after the sheriff temporarily barred a provider from giving addiction services to inmates at the county jail over its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I don’t know how you can get to any other conclusion,” Milliken said of her belief that the sheriff targeted her. “Or they wanted to waste thousands in taxpayer resources.”
Kane, in a phone interview, repeatedly declined to answer specific questions about the case or respond to Milliken’s claim that she was targeted. He cited a statute that prohibits officials from releasing information about criminal cases that don’t result in a conviction.
The sheriff said that he “stayed out” of the investigation, although the investigative report shows that Kane accompanied a detective on multiple interviews with witnesses and town officials.
Milliken said in an interview that the sheriff pulled her out of a meeting in the State House to ask her to return a call from the detective. She did not. When asked about his participation in the case, Kane repeated that he could not comment.
The criminal case hinged on the specific language that Milliken used when she went to Blue Hill Town Hall that morning to greet voters as a representative for write-in candidate Amanda Woog. State law allows representatives of a candidate to greet voters at the polls so long as they do not express support for them or state the office the candidate is running for.
The detective’s report, primarily based on 15 interviews, shows that two voters recalled Milliken making statements that would have violated state law, including, “I support Amanda Woog for selectman.” Others could not remember Milliken’s exact wording or described the lawmaker making statements that are allowable under the law.
The latter group included a woman working at a bake sale near where Milliken was standing in the town hall who told the detective she “overheard Milliken saying ‘I’m a friend of Amanda Woog’ maybe 200 times,” according to the report. That would be allowed under state law. (Woog was ultimately elected to one of two open seats on the board.)
Hancock County Sheriff Scott Kane speaks at an Ellsworth news conference after the death of a deputy on Sept. 23, 2021. Photo by Linda Coan O’Kresik of the Bangor Daily News.
A local prosecutor brought the charge against Milliken on Sept. 4. The case was handled by Kirk Bloomer, who typically works for Hancock County but in this case worked under the supervision of another jurisdiction’s office because Hancock County District Attorney Bob Granger recused himself over a conflict of interest.
The charge was first reported by the Maine Wire, the conservative media arm of the Maine Policy Institute. It is unusual for prosecutors to pursue minor violations at polling places, where such rules are typically enforced by local election officials who tell candidates to move.
A spokesperson for Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office, which typically investigates election-related crimes and crimes against public officials, could provide no record that the crime had ever been charged.
Natasha Irving, the district attorney in midcoast Maine, who assumed supervision of the case after Hancock County District Attorney Bob Granger recused himself over a conflict of interest, dismissed the case on Oct. 9. In a press release, she cited new evidence that painted “a new and more complete picture of the events of that day.”
The evidence included text messages that Milliken sent to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows shortly after leaving the polls, Irving said. They show that Milliken reached out to Bellows that morning to clarify that her actions were legal, according to copies of the messages.
“I have been standing at the polls and saying ‘I am friends with Amanda Woog’ (she is a write-in candidate). That is legally allowed, correct?” Milliken wrote.
“Yes,” Bellows, who is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, responded. “You can’t say what she’s running for of course but you can say a friend of.”
Will Ashe, Milliken’s defense attorney, described the dismissal as an example of the system working: a prosecutor looked at the evidence and decided there was not enough to move forward. That said, he did not believe the evidence should have ever resulted in charges.
“The fact that it was dismissed so quickly says a lot about whether it should have been brought in the first place,” Ashe said. “Even if you could prosecute someone for this, why would you want to?”
