The York County Sheriff’s Department suspended its mechanic for just one day after he allegedly pulled someone over in an unmarked cruiser lent to him by the department, despite being a civilian, according to police records obtained by The Maine Wire.
The mechanic was not charged, and the responding deputy told dispatch to disregard the incident but failed to inform the victim that the driver who pulled him over was not a deputy.
Loghan Aycock, 21, an electrician, was on his way home from work on September 12 when he decided to pass the car ahead of him after wiper fluid from the vehicle sprayed onto his windshield while he was travelling behind it, he told The Maine Wire.
After passing, in what he said was a legal passing zone, the vehicle, an unmarked Ford Expedition, flashed blue lights at Aycock and appeared to be initiating a traffic stop, with which he complied.
Aycock told The Maine Wire that, instead of performing a normal traffic stop, the driver pulled up alongside Aycock, blocked traffic, failed to provide his name, and shouted at him from his window, demanding that he reduce his speed and chastising him for traveling over the speed limit in order to pass.
That driver was James Chadbourne, 51, not a law enforcement officer authorized to initiate traffic stops, but the Sheriff’s Department’s mechanic.
According to police records obtained by the Maine Wire via a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request, the York Sheriff’s Department administration lent him the unmarked cruiser for the weekend because his personal vehicle had broken down.
Instead of filing charges against Chadbourne for impersonating a public servant—the misdemeanor listed on the incident report—Sheriff William King determined that the mechanic should face a single day of suspension from work and downplayed the alleged crime as an “administrative violation.”
“You admitted to activating the emergency equipment on the YCSO cruiser that you were driving. You also acknowledged that you were wrong, and expressed remorse for doing so,” said Sheriff King in his disciplinary note to Chadbourne.
“I believe a one-day suspension is in order as a corrective measure for his administrative violation,” he added.
After Chadbourne drove away, Aycock called the police, believing, correctly, that Chadbourne was not a law enforcement officer authorized to conduct a traffic stop.
According to his incident report, Deputy Alexander Markellos was on patrol in the area when he received Aycock’s complaint.
He located the “suspect vehicle,” the cruiser driven by Chadbourne, and approached the cruiser, which stopped for him. Markellos recognized Chadbourne as the department’s mechanic.
Chadbourne allegedly admitted to Markellos that he pulled Aycock over because he was upset that Aycock passed him “at a high rate of speed.”
Markellos reported that he told Chadbourne he would handle the situation and drove off to speak with Aycock, who was informed that a deputy would pull him over to discuss the incident.
Aycock told Markellos his side of the story, and Markellos misleadingly informed Aycock that the Expedition was, in fact, an unmarked sheriff’s department cruiser but chose not to mention that it was not being driven by a law enforcement officer.
That led Aycock to initially believe that Chadbourne was legally authorized to pull him over, and when asked by Markellos if he wanted to file a complaint, he said that he did not.
In his phone interview with The Maine Wire, Aycock said that the deputy he spoke with, Markellos, told him that the person who pulled him over was a “cop.”
The Maine Wire cannot confirm which version of the events is more accurate; it appears that, at the very least, essential information was withheld from Aycock that led him to believe he was pulled over by a legitimate law enforcement officer.
The CAD report, which transcribed information about calls related to the police incident, revealed more strange details.
According to the CAD, the Sheriff’s Department had nothing on file for the license plate number of the Expedition, though the plate number listed in the CAD clearly matches the number listed on Markello’s report.
The CAD also revealed that Markellos, referred to there by his number, 24, advised dispatch to disregard the plate given by Aycock, to take no action regarding the incident, and stated that it was not a case of impersonation.
Strangely, both the CAD and Markellos’ reports show that they were modified on October 14, over a month after they were initially filed, and on the same day Chadbourne’s suspension was handed down.
It is unclear what, if any, changes were made or why the report would need to be modified a month after it was filed.
Another deputy, Sergeant Joshua Morneau, filed his own report on the incident based on his interaction with Chadbourne upon his return to the York County Sheriff’s Office following the incident.
He spotted the Expedition returning to the department after listening to reports of the incident.
“I observed that it was being driven by the sheriff’s office fleet mechanic James Chadbourne (aka Jamie Chadbourne). He parked the vehicle and exited. Jamie a [sic] civilian employee of the sheriff’s office and not a sworn officer for any agency,” said Morneau.
Morneau then heard Chadbourne’s side of the story.
Chadbourne reportedly told him that he was having a bad day because he was forced to miss a scheduled dog training event since his personal vehicle had broken down.
In what he described as a “moment of weakness,” Chadbourne reportedly pulled over Aycock after he passed the Expedition, which, according to Chadbourne, he was driving at or slightly over the speed limit.
“I asked him if he flashed the blue lights at the passing car. Jamie corrected me and said he ‘pulled him over,'” said Morneau.
Chadbourne assured Morneau that he never claimed to be a police officer, but Morneau noted that he was wearing an olive-drab t-shirt with the Sheriff’s Department badge printed on it, along with matching pants similar to those worn by patrol deputies.
“I explained what he did was not ok, as he still exercised a law enforcement action by stopping the other motorist. Jamie acknowledged he knew he should not have do [sic] it,” said Morneau.
Aycock specified in his statement that he did not notice any badge when he was pulled over.
Morneau then informed Chief Deputy Jeremy Forbes, who requested that Morneau obtain a witness statement from Aycock.
Morneau called Aycock, who initially refused to provide a report.
“Loghan said he did not want to provide a statement because he did not want to get a police officer in trouble,” said Morneau.
In order to get Aycock to provide a statement, Morneau informed him that the man who pulled him over was not a law enforcement officer.
The Maine State Police were subsequently informed of the incident, but it is not clear what, if any, action they took.
The Maine Wire attempted to reach out to Chadbourne for comment via the phone number listed for him on the incident report, but the number appears to have been deactivated.
Information on the incident was not made public until The Maine Wire received records through our FOAA request.
Sheriff King has a history of covering up embarrassing incidents for the department.
In November, The Maine Wire revealed that the department was aware that a wanted fugitive was living with a corrections officer. The fugitive was eventually arrested at the corrections officer’s home, but she was not disciplined until months later, when The Maine Wire submitted a FOAA for reports regarding that incident.
[RELATED: Plot Thickens: Three York County Corrections Officers Indicted on Charges of Accepting Bribes…]
Just one day after that article was published, Sheriff King released a statement revealing that three other correctional officers had been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes from prisoners to smuggle contraband into the jail.
Before publicly releasing the documents provided to us by the Sheriff’s Department, The Maine Wire was forced to redo the redactions made by Sheriff King because sensitive personal identifying information was clearly visible through some of the redactions.
