Bangor voters have elected Angela Walker, who was convicted of manslaughter nearly a quarter century ago, as a new city councilor.
Walker joins Susan Faloon and Daniel Carson, among the three councilors-elect to emerge from the nine-way race in Tuesday’s election.
Walker received the fewest votes – 2,231 – of the three.
Faloon, a life coach, led the pack with 3,951 votes, and Carson, a labor and community organizer, earned 2,512.
Walker is the “peer services coordinator” for the Bangor Area Recovery Network.
She’s reportedly in recovery herself from addiction.
Walker was imprisoned after being convicted of manslaughter in 2003 among her experiences she’s said would help her be a voice on the council for the city’s most “vulnerable” residents amid intersecting homelessness and addiction crises.
Walker was convicted 23 years ago in the brutal Old Orchard Beach killing of Derek Rogers, a Canadian tourist who had allegedly called her a racist name.
Cops found that Rogers had been severely beaten and then suffocated to death with sand forced down his throat.
His lifeless body was found on the beach August 1, 2002 in a section of the popular coastal beach town known as Ocean Park.
He had been a musician who played trombone for the Canadian Central Command Band.
Rogers, whose family had vacationed in Old Orchard for generations, had spent several weeks at the beach with his wife of 20 years, Faith, police said at the time.
She had left Old Orchard to return to work, but Rogers was staying longer.
He was found dead by a fisherman shortly after 3 a.m. on the boardwalk along the beach a quarter-mile from the cottage he rented.
Walker is unenrolled in a political party and also named as priorities cleaning up public spaces and improving public transit as priorities.
This is one of the reasons I moved out of the city of Bangor. It is too corrupted, which I found out when I ran for city council. How many Republicans are currently serving on today’s council? I would even hesitate to walk into the restroom at city hall, afraid a drug addict might be “shotting up”. Several of past city council members (all Democrats) now serve in the Augusta legislature, with one individual seeking a Senate seat. What must happen first (if this is ever going to be fixed) is: 1. You must be a resident of the town/city you seek election in (no Democrats from south of Portland convicted of killing a tourist and a drug addict in recovery); 2. The only funding of election seekers is done with a written check baring the name and address of the donor. All donations must come from the residents of the State of Maine only. People need to reinstitute the word, “NO” back into politics.