Hearing to consider removing Sheriff Wainwright from office is scheduled for April 22 [Video]

LEWISTON — Gov. Janet Mills has scheduled a public hearing for April 22 to take up the Oxford County commissioners’ request to remove Sheriff Christopher Wainwright from office.

Commissioners made the unanimous request in February in a letter to the governor, citing specific examples of Wainwright’s past actions, including disposal of dozens of firearms from the department’s evidence room without the knowledge of county officials and outside the financial scrutiny of those officials.

The commissioners have no authority to suspend or fire Wainwright, who was first elected sheriff in 2018. Maine’s Constitution dictates that only the governor has that power.

The letter of complaint was sent to the governor following months of investigation by the commission.

Very soon after receiving the complaint, Mills appointed former Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Donald G. Alexander to oversee a public hearing on the complaint.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wainwright issued a formal response to …