Most Maine sheriffs don’t sell guns from evidence

By Erin Rhoda, Bangor Daily News Staff

Investigations into the Oxford County sheriff over the last year drew public attention to how he traded guns from the evidence room to a local gun store without seeking permission from the original gun owners, keeping financial records of the deal or telling officials responsible for finances about it.

But the actions of Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright, which local commissioners described as irresponsible and potentially unlawful, stand in contrast to the practices of other sheriffs in Maine, the Bangor Daily News found after requesting gun sale records from every county.

The records and interviews show for the first time how most elected sheriffs — 12 of 16 — do not sell guns from evidence at all or haven’t sold guns from evidence in recent years to dealers who then resell them.

Based on the new information, Oxford County appears to be the only one that has sold guns recently without seeking permission from original owners. Records and interviews also suggest sheriffs are moving away from the practice of selling guns that may have unknown origins or reliability to local dealers who resell them.

“We didn’t want to be in a position of selling a firearm and then sometime down the road having the firearm used in the commission of a crime,” Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said, explaining why his office does not sell guns that were used in crimes or suicides, found by police, or surrendered voluntarily by residents.

Of the four offices that have sold guns from evidence in recent years, two of them — in Piscataquis and York counties — have sold a limited number. A third, in Hancock County, is planning to stop selling guns from evidence altogether. The final one, Oxford County, approved a new policy in 2023 requiring the county administrator to sign off on any future trade-in of weapons.

People might sign over their guns to police for a variety of reasons. They might be moving to a place where they can’t have a gun, or they do not wish to keep a gun that belonged to a late family member, Piscataquis County Sheriff Robert Young said. Other times, someone who committed a crime is prohibited from having a gun, and a court order is needed to give the county possession of it.

“We do not sell or destroy any firearm until we have either a court order or a written transfer of ownership to the SO,” said Young, whose office does not sell guns used in suicides.

His office has sold two guns from evidence since 2019 to a local, licensed firearms dealer in exchange for cash, which was deposited into a fund used to purchase equipment — such as firearms, cruiser laptops and body cameras — not covered under the regular budget. 

One of the guns sold had been used in an attempted murder case and was forfeited to the sheriff’s office as part of a plea agreement, Young said. It sold for $400 to Mountain’s Sport Shop in Dover-Foxcroft in August 2023. The second gun garnered $150 from the same store four months later. Unlike the sheriff’s office in Oxford County, Piscataquis kept dated and signed records of each payout.

Maine law requires guns used in homicides to be destroyed, but it allows police to sell guns used in other crimes to federally licensed firearms dealers or the public, use them for training purposes, or destroy them.

But before getting rid of guns, police must first make sure that no one else has a right to them. Maine law specifies that police have to make reasonable efforts to identify and notify the owner, or advertise lost property in a newspaper if the owner isn’t known.

The Oxford County sheriff’s missteps in selling 52 guns and gun parts to J.T. Reid’s Gun Shop in Auburn in June and September 2021 contributed to Gov. Janet Mills considering whether to remove him from elected office after commissioners alleged improper conduct. 

The governor, who is the only person who can oust a sitting sheriff under the Maine Constitution, decided this spring not to remove him, noting he did not benefit personally from the trade to the gun store for credit. But she said her decision should not be viewed as a vindication.

The York County Sheriff’s Office only trades in guns from evidence to its distributors for credit if they were legally forfeited into county possession and have value, Sheriff William King said. His office traded in 10 forfeited guns to First Due Firearms of Sabattus in 2023.

It does not trade evidence room firearms that were found, unwanted by owners, used in suicides or could be returned but the owner can’t be found, he said. That is in part because it’s hard to know the reliability of those types of firearms. 

“Consequently, selling them would have the potential of exposing the county to liability should something happen. More importantly, we do not want somebody hurt needlessly,” King said.

Second to Oxford County, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office sold the greatest number of firearms from evidence, a total of 29, including several without serial numbers, within the last five years, according to its records. But it will soon change course, Chief Deputy William Birch said.

Its new policy, which is expected to be implemented this month, will prohibit the sale or auction of firearms, “reflecting our commitment to responsible evidence management,” Birch said.

Until recently it sold weapons that were legally forfeited, found or surrendered to federally licensed Willey’s Sport Center in Ellsworth, under an evidence control policy from 2008 that gave the sheriff the authority to determine what happened to firearms in evidence, Hancock County Sheriff’s Office Detective Frank Jennings said in a written statement. 

The evidence officer “diligently attempts to locate the rightful owners of abandoned or found property before any sale is considered,” Birch said.

Since 2019, the sheriff’s office has traded in five different batches of guns from evidence for store credit. It recorded each gun it sold and kept a running tally of how much credit the store gave it, showing that, as of April, it had $3,147 in credit remaining. The credit has been used to buy firearms, ammunition, targets, firearm cleaning supplies and optics, Jennings said.

The sheriff’s office has also destroyed guns. In October 2023, Jennings took five firearms to a local garage to have them cut up with a torch. 

The newspaper asked counties on June 4 for financial documentation of the purchase, sale or trade of both officers’ service weapons and guns from evidence since Jan. 1, 2019; any policies governing the purchase or sale of guns; and minutes from commissioners’ meetings where deals were discussed or approved.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office provided six pages of records within two days, making it the first office to fully respond to the request. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office released 104 pages within three days. 

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded last on Sept. 12 to say it had not sold any firearms from evidence but destroys guns that are illegal to possess, such those with sawed-off barrels or filed-off serial numbers.

Cumberland and Penobscot counties — the largest and third largest by population in Maine — both forbid the sale of firearms that are collected as evidence, voluntarily surrendered or forfeited, and require them to be destroyed if they can’t be returned to the owners. 

Some agencies sell firearms to offset public safety expenses, including the state, which conducts the largest firearms auction in Maine, Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton noted, but his office remains steadfast in its policy.

“Many recovered firearms were used in suicides, some have no identification numbers and others are in poor operating condition. Our office does provide the return of firearms to their owners when legally and safely permitted,” he said.

While the Washington County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t traded or sold guns from evidence since at least 2015, Chief Deputy Michael Crabtree said he couldn’t speculate on what might happen in the future given that sheriffs are elected every four years, and policies can change.

However, “We have not traded or sold any items from evidence nor do I see that changing in the near future,” he said.