| 1983 |
|
I contact Bangor Chief of Police August 1983 It was two and a half years since my last contact with Shuman and Pinkham and I hadn’t heard a word from the homicide detectives. Mike’s murder was going on on three years old. Not knowing where to turn or what to do to find out what happened to Mike, I wrote to Bangor Police Chief Francis Woodhead requesting a copy of Mike’s criminal record. He responded on August 9, 1983. "The law does not provide for any person(s) other than then individual who is seeking the review of his own record [he wasn’t alive to seek his own record], or his attorney, to inspect these records." I didn’t know at that time that criminal records were kept at the Maine State Bureau of Identification in Augusta, Maine and Woodhead did not advise me of that fact. I just forgot about it at that time. |
| I contact Maine State Police again 2 1/2 years later |
|
It was a day or so before the 1983 Labor Day weekend
when I called the Maine State Police Barracks and spoke with Shuman. I had finally found the
courage to contact the homicide detectives again. Mike’s murder was now five months short
of three years old and I hadn’t heard a word from
the homicide detectives. The only contact I’d had
with them was when I initiated the contact. And
during my last meeting with them at DA Cox's office
their attitude had left me fearful to contact
them again. I felt that they were not interested in
solving Mike’s murder. But since they were assigned
Mike’s case, I had nowhere else to go for help.
During my conversation on the phone with Shuman I said that I couldn't understand why Pinkham told me what he did about Lionel Cormier and Percy Sargent and then denied it. He said I could ask him when I came to the meeting, but I only met with Shuman. Shuman admits Percy Sargent was selling his drugs to a undercover DEA drug informant This meeting was at the Maine State Police Barracks, where I first met Pinkham. During our meeting Shuman gave me a bs story concerning Percy Sargent, the man Pinkham told me sent a call to have Mike "taken care of." Shuman said that Percy Cote (a drug dealer with a long criminal record) was working for the DEA the night Mike was murdered. He said that there were times when they had to work that way—use criminals to catch criminals. He also said that Percy Sargent did have Mike killed, but that it had nothing to do with the February 17–18, 1981 undercover DEA drug sting that occurred less than four hours before Mike was murdered. He said the reason Percy had Mike killed was because of a $20,000 rip-off he and Mike had planned and when Percy was arrested he feared Mike would tell about the rip-off. Richard Sargent gave me a copy of a conversation (transcribed) he had with his brother Percy Sargent and Percy told Richard that Pollard and Cormier talked to Mike about their armed robberies and that Mike told him (Percy) that he wanted nothing to do with armed robberies. Shuman continued with his lie when he said he didn’t know who Percy contacted to have Mike killed, and he also told me that he didn’t think Mike’s murder would ever be solved because it was drug-related and no one would talk. As I got up to leave I turned back toward Shuman in anger and said, “If someone struck your dog and knocked it in a ditch and didn’t bother to pick it up or come to let you know it was dead, just let it stay in a ditch for six days, you would be upset. Mike wasn’t a dog! He was my son; and as long as I live I will fight to find out what happened to him.” He just looked at me and shook his head. I didn't know then that when Mike's body was found the fire inspector though the had found a dog. As I entered the hall I saw a door to a room directly across the hall that was nearly closed and the bottom of a man's crossed legs and his shoes behind the door. Pinkham was hiding behind the door. Stay away from that After leaving the meeting, I contacted Mike's attorney (Andrew Mead) to ask him if he would help me find out what happened to Mike. His advice was to “stay away from that, Mrs. Cochran.” |
| 1984 |