FRYEBURG, Maine — Three police officials have been suspended while town officials investigate reports that a pair of officers partied with confiscated beer at a bash attended by teenagers.
Town Manager Sharon Jackson confirmed Thursday night that an outside agency was brought in to look into the allegations that came to light in a Bridgton News story earlier in the day.
Jackson said three police officials had been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation. She did not confirm reports that Fryeburg police Chief Phil Weymouth was one of the officers facing discipline.
The allegations surfaced Thursday when The Bridgton News reported they had received a letter, along with several photos of the party in progress, from an unnamed source.
Details of the allegations are sordid. They involve Fryeburg police officers encouraging teenagers to drink beer that had been confiscated over the summer and photos of a town employee’s wife dancing on the hood of a marked Police Department truck.
The party was alleged to have taken place at 9 Oxen Pull Road, although the story does not say when.
According to The Bridgton News, the paper received a typewritten letter signed by “Concerned Fryeburg Residents” who describe one incriminating photo as “showing a town employee’s wife ‘dancing’ on the hood of the Fryeburg Police Department’s pickup truck. The color image, taken at night, shows a smiling woman squatting on the hood of a reddish pickup with ‘Fryeburg Police’ lettering on the passenger door. She has one hand resting on the pickup’s hood, while the other holds a blue can of beverage.”
According to the news story, the letter-writers claimed Chief Weymouth gave his blessing to the party after taking some of the confiscated beer for himself. Weymouth has denied that charge, telling a Bridgton News reporter: “Never happened.”
The chief is also quoted as saying he plans to get to the bottom of the allegations that he described as disturbing.
“They’re upsetting,” Weymouth told The Bridgton News. “In order for me as a police officer to do a proper investigation, I have to know who is behind what is being said.”
Later Thursday, other sources said some of the photos in question had been posted on Facebook, although by Thursday night, they apparently had been taken down.
Reached at home Thursday night, Jackson said she could not predict how long the investigation would last. She said she could not comment further on the suspensions, because it is a personnel matter.
That’s enough of these shenanigans!
hey farva, whats the name of that place you like with all the goofy **** on the walls?
Not many quotes to put here that wouldn’t get pulled down quickly. LOL
Was the first thing that came to mind when I read it.
You mean Shenanigans?
If this is true, they should be fired and never be allowed to be officers again and this includes,crossing guards or dog catchers.
They need to be prosecuted.
Let see if the county District Attorney does his job , or kisses their behind like a good backwater
District Attorney
i bet you’re a real treat for a neighbor–is there anything you don’t whine about? glad they didn’t have fireworks, right?
Thats why my neighbors,some of them,the ones that are honest living ,including one in law enforcement.plus a bank executive for a certain Skowhegan bank that does not even live in my hood,wanted me to start a crime watch. Unfortunately i have to cancel this moniker, to be truthful if you get my drift
probably they thought it would keep you occupied and since you were minding everyone elses business anyway.. the easiest way to get rid of an annoyance is to find them some sort of task..
“Fireworks have made Maine noisier than Massachusetts”
http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/fireworks-have-made-maine-noisier-than-mass__2012-10-19.html
so a “town employee wife” was seen dancing on the hood of a car? i understand that it WAS a police car but seriously…how is that any different than parking my car in Abbot Square and “squatting” and posing with a can of miller high life?
Miller? My first thought was Bud Light lol
Could have been Pepsi! lol
My first thought was Allens Coffee Brandy
That comes in a blue can now? :) lol
Weymouth should be immediately placed on leave. he is more concerned with who tipped off the newpaper than his officers actions. hopefully the town manager brings in the State Police to get to the bottom of this
I disagree. This was obviously a community policing strategy. The LEOs should be commended for the community outreach to the sometimes troubled & neglected segment of of our society.
I would make them state police, then we’d have a real life super troopers!
We are going to have to change the old saying “Its all fun and games until the cops show up” to “Its all fun and games until a Concerned Fryeburg Resident shows up”.
“Don’t worry about that little guy”..
Sh!tcan the entire police force, chief included and start fresh.
Fryeburg cops, a cancer is amongst you.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. H. L. Mencken——–fits you perfectly —- god forbid if they were using fireworks—–just from your posts, one can tell you aren’t one to be calling anyone else names– im sure no one is sad to see you leave skowhegan
People,’humans’ are naturally bad,contrasted to naturally good.. This doctrine at the nucleus,the heart of Western civilization thinking. That means laws are necessary, it also means derogatory words like skank, wh9re are necessary with laws, to curb human behavior.
too bad we can’t curb yours- all you have made is sour comments everytime you post-pretty pathetic– the menken quote fits you
My experience is that people are naturally good, and that they need to learn to be bad.
The Bible is a flawed book, and children are not born into sin. Spare the rod and spoil the child was a mis-quote from translators who did not care to correctly parse Hebrew, and your whole argument stinks to high heaven of judgement, the very judgement Jesus and Moses counciled against.
what is your excuse?
WOW, they use to just use the stuff they took to party with each other, bad move on these guy’s part
A party isn’t a good party until a woman is dancing on a vehicle or a table. ;)
It has happen before in other New England states, the Maine State police need to go in and temporarily take over all operations of the Fryeburg police department
so much for home rule
This is sad….and what makes me most angry is that it’s people like this that ruin the reputation for the whole bunch of GREAT law enforcement that is out there, my husband included. As for the woman dancing on the roof..whatever, but don’t do it on a police car (which shouldn’t have been at the party anyway) and the police officers can party on their off time if they want (they have lives too) but do it responsibly and don’t break the law by providing to minors when you are doing it! This is disgraceful to those who work hard at this career and uphold themselves to higher standards.
Oh and we are not from anywhere near the Fryeburg area so I don’t know who these guys are but they should be seriously ashamed.
Problem is, punks and criminals are always saying the cops took their booze, POT, or drugs then using it themselves. It has always been taken as total nonsense but now it appears that the Fryeburg PD is for now on, giving those statements validity.
*sigh* Yes, it appears that these officers have done that….and that is too bad because it affects the good guys too :-/ People need to think about how their actions affect others that work hard to do well.
Oh good old sexist Mainers.
The Fryeburg Police do confiscate lots of beer, especially that purchase in NH with out returnable markings. Then they drink the beer themselves, it’s a perk of the job.
Drinking the stuff is less of a crime than letting it get skunky!
“Getting to know you
getting to know all about you
getting to like you,
getting to hope you like me.”
From Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I.
Did the officers watch the juveniles drive home drunk from the beer bash?
question IS, what are the ages of the so called “teenagers”? and remember, some police are kids too, young at heart!!!!!! and so what if they took the beer, less the kids get too drink!!! there wasn”t any Zumba”s there were there, were there?? no worries!! . boys will be boys!!! lol….. ya gotta love it!!! the cops partying with a chick on their hood!!!!
how OLD are you…..how old are you? sounds like song doesn”t it?
No thats “how dry I am” lol just had to pick at this one sorry…
If it is true atleast the police officer that was driving that patrol car should be fired period.
coudda been the whiskey, mighta been the gin, coudda been the 3 or 4 six pack I don’t know but look at the mess I’m in , my head is like a football, I think Im gonna die, tell me, me oh me oh my , wasn’t that a partyyyy…
Party!
There are many of us in law enforcement that do not find this funny at all. Fryeburg PD has got to be one of the better departments in the state to work for as far as pay, retirement, benefits, beautiful scenery, etc, for these guys to potentially ruin their careers being stupid is well…stupid. If the chief is not involved in any way I can understand his frustration but giving that there is already apparently some concern for his involvement or tolerance of this makes it clear that an outside agency, not the chief, needs to investigate this. It is certainly not super uncommon to hear all the jokes about cops “drinking” all the evidence but this takes it to a whole new level. The officers here, just like everyone, deserve due process and a fair investigation but if the allegations turn out to be true they need to be held accountable and the “concerned citizen” needs to be commended not chastised.
Strange world we live in now, who do ya believe, who do ya want to believe, true, false, stool pigeon,
spur of the moment harmless fun, our world and the work place is changing dramatically, drinking up a little confiscated beer, once long ago in Maine, might have been considered good clean fun, but, I got a feeling the can in the womans hand was a pepsi, and that there is very little more to this yarn, except a disappointed stool pigeon.
could have been worse. recently a nypd cop was charged with plotting to kidnap, cook and eat women.
Hmmmm… must be part of the curriculum at the Police Academy….
MCLOVIN!!!
I feel certain that Nestle will make any charges against Chief Weymouth go away.
The only difference between cops and crooks is the spiffy uniforms.