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The secrets left behind by Millinocket’s ousted leaders

Julie Archie of Millinocket is one of many residents still looking for answers after the town's former police chief was fired, then unfired, and the police department disbanded. Credit: Linda Coan O'Kresik / BDN

Residents of a former mill town rallied for a longtime local police officer after she filed a harassment complaint against the new police chief in 2020. Within a year, the police department was disbanded, the chief was fired, then unfired, two town managers were terminated and the town agreed to $250,000 in settlements with two former officers.

But little of what happened to cause all that personnel turmoil has been made public, leaving residents searching for answers. In Josh Keefe’s report for Bangor Daily News, he details Millinocket’s turbulent year, highlighting the tensions between the privacy rights of municipal employees and residents’ right to know about the actions of their public servants.