News

Top cop in Maine banned after faking report to flee meeting

Top cop in Maine banned after faking report to flee meeting

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio


FRYEBURG, Maine (AP) A former Maine police chief wanted to skip out of a public meeting so badly that it cost him his career.

A law enforcement oversight board has decided to revoke the license of former Fryeburg Police Chief Joshua Potvin after an investigation found Potvin, who had been chief for six years, invented a suspicious person report so he could ditch a Fryeburg Board of Selectmen meeting in February 2020.

The Maine Criminal Justice Academy decision said Potvin engaged in a multi-step fraud that began with texting one of his officers and asking her to call him out of the meeting. Potvin then drove his cruiser to the Fryeburg Fairgrounds.

Potvin then used the computer in his cruiser to create a false entry in the department dispatch system that said he drove there in response to a report of a suspicious person, the academy found. He also entered a fairground employee’s license plate number into the entry.

The academy voted in February to take away Potvin’s license. The details of the investigation then became public this month, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Potvin has waived his right of appeal. He resigned last year. The decision bars Potvin from working in Maine law enforcement again.

Potvin did not respond to a request for comment from the Bangor Daily News.

Latest Headlines

3 hours ago in Local

Westbrook Police Seek Help To Locate Missing Woman

She is known to frequent the Westbrook and Portland area.

4 hours ago in National, Trending

Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and punishment

President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting "irreversible" cuts to programs important to Democrats.

4 hours ago in National, Trending

Delta jets have a ‘low-speed collision’ on LaGuardia taxiway, injuring 1

Two Delta Air Lines regional jets collided on the taxiway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, injuring a flight attendant, damaging a cockpit and tearing off part of a wing in what the airline described as a "low-speed collision."

4 hours ago in Lifestyle, Trending

Gatorade and Cheetos are among the Pepsi products getting a natural dye makeover

PepsiCo, which also makes Doritos, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Funyuns and Mountain Dew, announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to using natural colors in its foods and beverages.

4 hours ago in Trending, World

Schwarzenegger downplays Trump and backs Vatican initiative to ‘terminate’ global warming

Arnold Schwarzenegger downplayed the Trump administration's climate skepticism Tuesday and threw his weight behind the Vatican's environmental initiative, saying individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic Church's moral leadership were far more important to "terminate" global warming.