Morning Sentinel from Waterville, Maine • B2

Friday, September 8, 2017 Morning Sentinel B2 LOCAL MAINE it. She said he grabbed some $10 and $5 bills from the register as she was trying to close it, and he took cigarettes from a display and other racks and put them into a small black trash can and fled with it. On Thursday morning in the same courtroom at the Capital Judicial Center, Hurtado gave a lengthier apology for changing the number of years on the sen- tencing document and said he had been sincere in his remarks the previous day. He said he altered the docu- ment so he could impress his fellow inmates when he went back to the cellblock before be- ing taken to prison. was being a he told Marden.

intent was not to pull the wool over your eyes. It was a foolish act on my Madigan recommended a three- year consecutive prison term for the act, which he termed of the most egregious forms of forg- ery that could be not- ing that the judgment and com- mitment form is kept by the court for reference in the future. attorney, Brad Grant, suggested a one-year consecutive term, noting that Hurtado was taking responsi- bility for his action less than 24 hours after the offense occurred. Grant said he met with Hur- tado on Wednesday night at the Kennebec County jail and re- viewed the evidence supporting the new charge. The judge said he too was send- ing a message to the cellblock in imposing a two-year consecutive sentence for the aggravated forg- ery offense.

That means Hurtado was sentenced to a total of five years behind bars. Betty Adams 621-5631 Twitter: Forgery FROM PAGE B1 Visit us online at centralmaine.com Follow us on Twitter At the time, students were being taken by bus to school an hour late because of profes- sional development activities, so those who had not yet arrived at the schools were kept on the bus and ultimately taken to Spruce Mountain Primary School in Liv- ermore, he said. The entrance to the high school was blocked so that students driving to school were unable to enter. The middle and high schools were searched and officials con- cluded it was a hoax, accord- ing to Healey. The district was out of lockdown as of 10:50 a.m.

Wednesday, according to Healey. The school district has a safe- ty committee that includes lo- cal law enforcement and fire officials, and it has been proac- tive in planning and practicing what to do in such emergencies, Healey said Wednesday. practiced this quite a Healey said. fact, the first day for teachers (Aug. 28), we had trained for an active-shoot- er situation, so fresh in their minds.

The professionalism of everyone involved very proud of, especially the outside agencies that supported Caton and Healey said Wednes- day after the incident that every- one worked well together to han- dle the situation. Amy Calder 861-9247 Twitter: Lockdown FROM PAGE B1 BY COLIN WOODARD Portland Press Herald A week ahead of its second meeting, President Donald voter fraud commis- sion has been accused of violat- ing federal public records laws, according to filings in an ongo- ing lawsuit by a public interest nonprofit. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said in a court filing Tuesday that the Justice De- partment lawyer had revealed during a court-ordered Sept. 1 conference call that commis- sioners and commission staff were using personal email ac- counts rather than federal ones for official business, a violation of the Presidential Records Act. Maine Secretary of State Mat- thew Dunlap, one of four Demo- crats on the 12-person commis- sion, confirmed Thursday that the commission set up federal email accounts for com- municating with him and rather had been sending official corre- spondence to his Gmail account.

not sure why they were using my personal email, be- cause I gave them my maine- dot-gov Dunlap said in an interview, adding that he had asked them repeatedly not to because it forced him to for- ward all of the traffic to his state government account. Dunlap, whose actions are consistent with Maine public re- cords law, said he aware that federal law required the creation of a U.S. government account for the presidential commission. did not know we were supposed to have feder- al email addresses and nobody mentioned he said. sus- pect this is the learning curve of the commission staff, because they are new to it, On Aug.

30, the lawyer, Justice Department at- torney Elizabeth Shapiro, apol- ogized to a federal judge over the failure to uphold a promise to disclose all public re- cords ahead of its first meeting in Washington, D.C., on July 19. was truly an honest misun- derstanding on the part of the Shapiro told U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kol- lar-Kotelly during a hearing for the ongoing suit by the Lawyers Committee, which asserted the commission was failing to meet legal mandates on the disclosure of information to the public. wanted to convey our apologies and our sincere regret for During the hearing, Judge Kollar-Kotelly indicated she was more concerned about the emails being captured than what sort of account they were sent from, least off the top of my John Freedman, an attorney representing the Law- Committee, responded they were concerned the com- mission taking sufficient measures to ensure all commu- nications were being captured. Dunlap has come under fire from fellow Democrats and elec- tion fraud experts for agreeing to participate in the body, which Trump set up after making evi- dence-free claims that he would have won the popular vote had there not been millions of illegal ballots cast in the 2016 election.

Commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach has sent two con- troversial requests to election administrators in all 50 states, asking them to turn over de- tailed voter registration infor- mation to the commission. Nei- ther of the requests which were rejected by many blue and red states alike was made with the prior approval or con- sultation with the commission- ers, raising questions about what if any powers they actually have. In its first meeting, the com- chairman, Vice Pres- ident Mike Pence, made clear that it will focus almost entirely on voter fraud, a problem nu- merous studies and probes by administrations of both parties have shown is vanishingly rare, and will not address the system- atic intrusion of state election infrastructure by Russia, a prob- lem Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent, has been espe- cially vocal about. Dunlap has said he has joined the commission with an open mind and will act as a whis- tleblower if it engages in parti- san shenanigans, and reiterated that position Thursday, though he expressed concerns about commissioners not approving actions taken in their name.

are not a commission of Dunlap said. should be making these decisions as a does seem like becoming a little bit clunky, given the scruti- ny we are Dunlap added. even talked about the second request (for voter data) and not even on the agenda for the second Commissioners are meeting Tuesday at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, at the invitation of another Dem- ocratic member of the commis- sion, New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner. At the meeting, commission- ers will hear presentations from three panels of experts regard- ing historical election turnout, integrity issues affect- ing public and elec- tronic voting machines.

They also will see a demonstration of a type of voting machine that has been in constant service in the Granite State since 1892. The Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law did not respond to interview requests. The voter fraud com- mission forwarded a request for comment to Nicole Navas Oxman, the spokesperson at the Department of civil rights division, which is repre- senting the body in the suit, who declined to comment. Voter fraud commission accused of violating record laws Commission questioned for having used personal email accounts rather than those mandated by federal law BY ERIC RUSSELL Portland Press Herald Bowdoin College, in Bruns- wick, has purchased a late-18th-century house from a family that has made disput- ed claims that author Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote portions of her acclaimed novel there. The sale, which closed Thurs- day, ends a lengthy legal battle between the college and the family of Arline Lay.

The terms of the sale were confidential. are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Bowdoin College for the pur- chase of our property at 28 Col- lege the Lay family said in a prepared statement. result is both reasonable and fair to our family and we appre- ciate the willingness to work with us to resolve the mat- Bowdoin officials did not com- ment on the sale. The two-story Colonial style home was built in the late 1700s and originally was located on Park Row. A previous owner, the author and historian Robert P.T.

Coffin, bought the home in the early 1900s and moved it to 28 College in the middle of campus. Arline family, which has deep roots in Brunswick, even- tually inherited the house, and she and her husband lived there for many years. In 2012, after her husband died, Lay decided to sell, a de- cision that set in motion a long and sometimes bitter fight be- tween her family and the small liberal arts college. Arline son, James Lay, who has been critical of the college in the past, said in April that Bowdoin casts a big shadow in the state of The dispute hinged on an agreement between the college and Lay dating back to 1996 when Bowdoin purchased the property next to the house and persuaded the family to grant Bowdoin right of first re- fusal to buy the property at 125 percent of its appraised value. The Lay family later claimed that agreement was not valid and tried to sell anyway.

In 2014, the six-bedroom home was listed in 2014 by a Beverly Hills real es- tate company for $3 million far above its appraised value. The listing claimed that the home had significant historic value be- cause Stowe wrote parts of her anti-slavery novel there. Stowe did in fact live in Bruns- wick at the time her husband was a Bowdoin professor and she did write in the town. But college scholars and leading historian, Earle Shettleworth said Stowe wrote her novel while residing at 63 Federal St. That property, located near the campus, is now known as the Harriet Beecher Stowe House and is owned by Bowdoin Col- lege.

The Lay family took the prop- erty off the market but then relisted it in 2016 and eventu- ally found a buyer a woman in South Portland who offered $750,000. Bowdoin filed a lawsuit to block that sale and succeeed in doing so. This spring, Maine Superior Court Justice Michaela Mur- phy ruled that the Lay family must honor the agreement with the college. She also outlined a process for determining a value for the property, and the clos- ing price was the result of suc- cessful negotiation between the Lays and the college. According to Brunswick re- cords, the property was as- sessed at $261,800 this year.

There are no immediate plans for the property at 28 College the college said in a statement Thursday. Bowdoin College buys home after long dispute According to Sheila Higgins, the dock had been in that area for decades, and they had taken it out that month to replace it with an improved dock. of a sudden telling us that we go there at Higgins said. children have been going there since they were born, and been very difficult for us for the past eight Meader, however, disputed that and said that he has photos of the area going back to 1965 showing that there was no dock. In 2016, the Higginses placed the new dock on Stan property as the land dispute continued, and they obtained an after-the-fact permit from Mitnik.

This summer, they again placed the dock in the right of way, which Meader asserts vio- lates the agreement. Higgins said they want the dock to be in the right of way so the community can use it. Chris Pike, who lives in the same subdivision and bought a new dock for the Higginses and others to use in the right of way, said all used that area since he bought his house in 2002. never had this problem until a certain individual took over the he said. There is also a dispute over where the property boundaries lie.

A number of surveys have been done in the area and pro- duced conflicting results. A new survey is being done to try to re- solve those problems, but is not yet finished. Mitnik declined to get involved in the land disputes. When he saw photos of the dock that went back to a certain year, he said the Higginses were grand- fathered and did not require a permit. Madeline St.

Amour 861- 9239 Twitter: Appeal FROM PAGE B1 those rights to another firm that may or may not be in Maine. As for the Medicaid expansion language, Muszynski said there was likewise concern that the term could become a lightning rod and that was an accurate term. Republican opponents to Ques- tion 2 often refer to the ballot question as welfare or as wel- attempting to tap into the political dynamics over welfare that have helped conservatives at the ballot box in Maine. thank Secretary of State Matt Dunlap for recognizing that Medicaid is not Maine Republican Party Execu- tive Director Jason Savage said in a statement. is encouraging to see a correct and nonpartisan decision made in the interest of informing voters about this very expensive proposal to expand welfare A spokesman for the Question 2 campaign said his side also is pleased with the final wording of the question, despite what he por- trayed as attempts to mischarac- terize the initiative by opponents.

think the secretary of office did a good job of accurate- ly describing what the initiative will do and who it will said David Farmer, spokesman for Mainers for Health Care ballot question committee. is clear that Medicaid is insurance but we believe describing the initia- tive as an effort to expand health care coverage follows the princi- ples as required by Both sides are gearing up for a short but contentious public re- lations campaign on Question 2 ahead of the November elections. Under the Affordable Care Act, states were allowed to expand Medicaid coverage to nondis- abled adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty lev- el. Thirty-one states have, to date, expanded Medicaid and taken advantage of the federal govern- offer to cover 100 percent of the expansion costs in the initial years and then 90 percent by 2020. Medicaid expansion has passed the Maine Legislature five times with bipartisan support, but was subsequently vetoed by Gov.

Paul who insists the addition- al coverage will prove far more costly to the state. In response, left-leaning groups such as Maine Equal Justice Partners collected more than 67,000 petition signa- tures Maine voters to place the issue on the ballot this No- vember. The vote on Question 2 in Maine follows months of national debate over the fate of the Afford- able Care Act as President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress attempt to repeal and replace former President Barack landmark health insur- ance law. Maine voters should expect Question 2 opponents to contin- ue to portray the initiative as a type of medical welfare. we raised several con- cerns over the Medicaid welfare question, we are pleased Secre- tary Dunlap recognized it has nothing to do with insurance as about expanding Medicaid welfare to working age adults who are not Rep.

Heather Sirocki, a Scarborough Republican and member of the Welfare to Work political action committee, said in a statement. why Maine people must vote No on 2 this Farmer believes the initiative has strong bipartisan support, as evidenced by the five votes in support of expanded Medicaid from the Legislature. truth is the best defense, and the facts make clear what this initiative Farmer said. Question 1, the York County ca- sino initiative, is written in such a way as to only allow one man, international gambling entrepre- neur Shawn Scott, or his compa- ny to build the facility somewhere in York County. Scott led the referendum campaign that au- thorized first gambling facility, although he then sold the rights to build what is now Holly- wood Casino in Bangor.

Question 1 will now read: you want to allow a certain company to operate table games slot machines in York County, subject to state and local approval, with part of the profits going to the specific programs described in the Question 3 on the ballot, a bond referendum, will read: you favor a $105,000,000 bond issue for construction, re- construction and rehabilitation of highways and bridges and for facilities or equipment related to ports, harbors, marine transpor- tation, freight and passenger rail- roads, aviation, transit and bicycle and pedestrian trails, to be used to match an estimated $137,000,000 in federal and other funds, and for the upgrade of municipal culverts at stream Question 4 is a proposed con- stitutional amendment dealing with amortization of pension losses. It will read: you fa- vor amending the Constitution of Maine to reduce volatility in state pension funding require- ments caused by the finan- cial markets by increasing the length of time over which experi- ence losses are amortized from 10 years to 20 years, in line with pension industry Additional information about the ballot initiatives, including the full legislative language of the proposals, is available on the secretary of website at maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcom- Ballot FROM PAGE B1 Saltbox Primitives FALL OPEN HOUSE SEPTEMBER 8-11 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 290 Eastern Avenue, Augusta 207-623-4711 www.saltboxprimitivesmaine.com Don miss out on our fall new fall scents, basket drawing, coupons and more! OFF YOUR TOTAL PURCHASE COUPON VALID ONLY DURING FALL OPEN HOUSE SEPT. 8-11 Present this coupon to receive SEAMLESS GUTTERS Superior Floating System 431-2613 MEMBER FDIC Annual Percentage Yield. Offer valid for new CD accounts with new funds.

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