The Associated Press
AUBURN, Maine (AP) -- Auburn’s police chief wants to give a lie detector test to one of nine officers disciplined for their roles in the drunk driving arrest of the city’s mayor.
Police Chief Richard Small has directed Patrol Officer Paul “Bud” Caouette to take a lie detector test to determine if Caouette was the officer who leaked a copy of Mayor Normand Guay’s OUI arrest report last August.
“I’ll take the test,” Caouette said. “I don’t think I have any choice. I believe that if I refused, I would be subject to discipline.”
The Auburn police chief took disciplinary action in January against nine officers, including Caouette, for their roles in the August arrest of the city’s mayor for drunken driving.
Chief Richard Small said the officers each received varying degrees of discipline. Caouette said he received a letter of reprimand.
He got another letter Monday, telling him to submit to a polygraph test on Wednesday morning that would determine if he leaked information to the media.
Attorney John Richardson said he was disgusted by the decision.
“All this does is create further bad feelings,” said Richardson, who represented the police union during contract talks with the city. “It divides the department when it ought to be moving forward.”
Mayor Guay was arrested Aug. 4 while driving home from Gipper’s Sports Bar and Grill. Guay said he drank three beers that night.
Police stopped him for having an expired registration, asked him to take a field sobriety test and then took him to the police station for a Breathalizer test.
The test showed the mayor’s blood alcohol content was 0.01, well below the legal limit of 0.08.
The Attorney General’s Office decided not to press charges, but Auburn officials hired a Portland law firm to review the police actions. The city was in the midst of contentious contract negotiations with the police department. The firm’s report said the police had cause to arrest the mayor.
Chief Small began his own investigation in December. That led to the discipline of the nine officers.