State AG's Office: We have no comment on their (York DA's) prosecutorial decision

Former selectmen candidate and town activist Teri Merrill confronts Selectchair Chuck Russell, right, blue shirt, over her right to have a protest sign in the meeting room last night at Town Hall. (Rochester Voice photos)

LEBANON, Maine - The Maine Attorney General's Office announced on Thursday they would be taking no action in the case of the alleged theft of livestock and marijuana from a Lebanon property last August.

The decision was relayed to The Rochester Voice by Marc Malon, Legislative and Press Liaison at the AG's office in Augusta.

"This matter is within the jurisdiction of the York District Attorneys Office. We have no comment on their prosecutorial decision," Malon stated in an email.

Protesters gather at Town Hall to picket the selectmen's meeting and seek signatures for recall petitions for four town officials.

Asked if that meant the AG's office "couldn't intervene" or "wouldn't intervene," he parroted his first reply: "This matter is within the jurisdiction of the York District Attorneys Office. We have no comment on their prosecutorial decision."

York District Attorney Kathryn Slattery said on Wednesday that no action is pending against any of the formerly named suspects.

Meanwhile, the target of the alleged theft, Eric Kelley, said on Thursday during a protest at Town Hall that an office worker at Slattery's office told him recently the reason Selectmen Chuck Russell and Ernest "Butch" Lizotte are not being charged is because they "returned his marijuana plants."

"That makes no sense," an exasperated Kelley said Thursday. "When I got them back they were destroyed."

The fact that they were withered and frail with many brown patches was chronicled by State Trooper Patrick Hall in an investigative report obtained by The Rochester Voice.

Because the selectmen's room was packed several onlookers watched it all unfold outside.

The other formerly named suspect was animal control officer Carol Harris.

Among those protesting during Thursday night's Board of Selectmen's meeting were former selectman candidate Teri Merrill and her husband, Mike, who expressed frustration with the York DA's refusal to prosecute anyone in the theft.

"I'm very disappointed with the unwillingness of the DA to bring criminal charges," Mike Merrill said. "If it was you or me we'd have been charged."

In another new wrinkle to the livestock and marijuana theft it was learned that budget committee member Deborah Dorey-Wilson was among the participants who assisted in their removal from Kelley's property.

Dorey-Wilson defended her actions during the public participation section of the regularly scheduled selectmen's meeting, saying she has been told by State Police in the past that enforcement of marijuana issues are to be handled at the town level.

She said that on the night of Aug. 24 when the plants were taken there were some 20 people running around Kelley's property and that some were talking about taking his plants.

She said she called Russell and Lizotte to come get the plants.

According to the investigative report, Russell said he didn't take the plants, he just oversaw their taking. However, in another part of the report, Hall writes, "Russell told me that he dropped some plants off with a friend and other people."

Protesters inside and outside of Town Hall were also seeking signatures for another recall petition on Russell as well as separate recall petitions on Lizotte, Jeffrey Adams and Dorey-Wilson.

Russell survived an earlier recall vote last October.