MACHIAS, Maine — A trial involving charges of reckless conduct and driving to endanger against former Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith will be moved to a new venue because of difficulties seating an impartial jury in the county where he worked.
According to Washington County District Attorney Matt Foster, the case will be tried in Penobscot County, likely in the fall.
The charges stem from an alleged confrontation that Smith had on the road in Lubec in January with a woman he previously had accused of assaulting him.
Smith was supposed to appear in Machias District Court on Thursday but a Washington County clerk said the parties involved in the case have agreed to move the trial to a new location.
Foster said Thursday that only 75 prospective jurors showed up when selection for the case was held recently in Washington County Superior Court. The preferred number of prospective jurors is usually around 120, he said, to ensure that at least 12 make it through the selection process without objection from prosecutors or defense attorneys.
“The court didn’t think there would be enough people,” Foster said.
The prosecutor said the parties considered moving the case to Hancock County, where Foster also serves as district attorney, but the court was concerned that seating a jury could be difficult there as well.
“It seemed like Penobscot County would be the best [venue for the trial],” Foster said.
The trial tentatively is expected to take place in late September or early October, he added.
Trials may be moved to a different county when a judge concludes it would be difficult to seat a jury of 12 people plus alternates because residents are too familiar with the facts of the case or have already formed an opinion about the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
Smith’s attorney, Don Brown of Brewer, would not comment when reached Thursday.
Smith has pleaded innocent to the charges, according to court documents.
The charges stem from an incident on Jan. 6 on Route 189 in Lubec involving Lubec resident Deborah Bousquet, whom Smith had accused of assaulting him during an altercation last fall, when he was still sheriff. In that prior incident, Smith went to find a school bus that had stopped by the side of the road after the bus driver radioed for help with what he said was a fight on the bus.
Bousquet, who had a child on the bus, and Smith allegedly got into a physical confrontation by the roadside next to the stopped bus. Smith said she hit him and he arrested Bousquet at the scene. Bousquet said that the accusation was false and that Smith had been the aggressor. Charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration against Bousquet later were dismissed by prosecutors for lack of evidence.
In the current case, District Attorney Foster previously has said that Smith was driving his Toyota pickup truck on Route 189 when he allegedly realized Bousquet was driving her car behind him and he slammed on his brakes, nearly causing her vehicle to rear-end his. Two other vehicles behind Bousquet also nearly got in a chain-reaction collision, but none of the vehicles ended up striking one another, Foster said.
The vehicles resumed traveling along the road and, when Bousquet went to turn into the entrance of the local elementary school, Smith allegedly slammed on his brakes a second time, again nearly causing a rear-end collision, according to the prosecutor. Bousquet told police that she stopped suddenly enough that her dog flew forward and struck the windshield of her car, Foster said.
In filing the charges, police allege that the former sheriff “did recklessly create a substantial risk of serious bodily injury” to another driver and that he “did, with criminal negligence, drive a vehicle … in a manner that endangered the property of another or a person, including the operator or passenger in the motor vehicle being driven.”
Attempts on Thursday to contact Bousquet’s attorney, Jeff Davidson of Machias, were unsuccessful.
Smith also recently has faced charges in two other cases.
He pleaded not guilty on June 22 to felony theft charges in connection with illegal expenditures from an inmate benefit account at the 48-bed county jail.
No decision has been made about whether that case also should be moved to another county if it goes to trial, but Foster said it seems likely the venue would be changed.
Smith also reached a deal May 7 on two unrelated counts of harassment by telephone, for which a jury trial had been scheduled to begin May 8. Those charges stemmed from “offensively coarse and obscene” texts sent on Jan. 1 to department employees, court documents say.
Smith lost in his re-election bid last November to Barry Curtis and his last day as sheriff was Dec. 31, 2014.
According to the terms of the deal in the harassment case, if Smith stays out of trouble for a year, the charges will be dropped, Foster has said. Smith also paid a $250 fee in that case.
The reckless conduct charge is a Class D misdemeanor, while the harassment charges and the driving to endanger charge are Class E misdemeanors. Convictions for Class D crimes in Maine carry a maximum possible penalty of 364 days in jail and a fine of $2,000, while convictions on Class E crimes are punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.