Maine police unions blame judges for Auburn incidents

AUBURN, Maine – In an unusual move, Maine state police unions representing the state police and 51 local police departments have named the judge who presided over the trials of Leein Hinkley three days before he allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend’s house with a gun and attempted to burglarize.

As of Monday evening, police had not released full details of what happened next on June 15, but several houses had burned to the ground, an unnamed victim had died in the first house, and police had shot and killed Hinkley after an exchange of gunfire.

Michael Edes is representing both the Maine Fraternal Order of Police and the Maine State Troopers Association in the matter. In a statement Sunday, Edes wrote that the “responsibility now clearly rests” with Judge Sarah Churchill after she reduced Hinkley’s bail to $1,500 and revoked his probation, leading to his release.

Hinkley was released early on parole after stabbing a partner and a Good Samaritan to death in 2011. On May 24 of this year, his parole officers attempted to persuade the court to let Hinkley serve the remaining five years of his sentence after he allegedly dragged his girlfriend by the hand and choked her nearly unconscious.

Officers from the units responding to Saturday’s incident called on Edes to comment.

“They were very frustrated,” Edes said in an interview on Monday. “This is a case that should never have happened.”

Churchill weakened Hinkley’s claims because Hinkley had not been provided with an attorney at his previous four court hearings. The judge believed that his right to an attorney under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been violated.

Edes argued that this was not the right time to take this step to protect Hinkley.

“The Androscoggin County District Attorney pleaded with the judge, ‘Don’t release this man to the public. He’s a danger,'” Edes said.

That district attorney, Neil McLean, confirmed that his attorneys were trying to persuade Churchill in the courtroom, not to reduce Hinkley’s probation and bail.

“There are 2,400 cases pending in Androscoggin County,” McLean told us Monday. “Many of them could be argued in that way, but Mr. Hinkley did not fall into that category. He was a dangerous individual.”

The Maine Attorney General’s Office said in a lengthy statement that it was “dangerous” to blame the court for the incidents. It concluded: “Until we have enough defense attorneys available to represent the defendants, our system will continue to malfunction.”

The tragedy highlighted a long-standing problem in Maine: There simply aren’t enough public defenders. Zachary Heiden, general counsel for the ACLU of Maine, has been pushing for more public defenders for years.

“When the system is broken – as we unfortunately have here in Maine – it’s not just a threat to what happens in the courtroom, it’s a threat to the safety of all of our communities,” Heiden said as he left a hearing in Cumberland County Court on Monday.

To make matters more stressful for everyone involved, Saturday’s deaths and destruction occurred in a city still grappling with the grief of Maine’s worst mass shooting.

Download the NEWS CENTER Maine mobile app to get the latest breaking news, weather and traffic alerts.