| |
| 1986 |
| Letter from Percy Sargent |
| There was complete silence after the state dismissed the arson/murder
indictments against Roger Johnson, William Meyers, and Richard Sargent. I had
lost all hope in Mike's murder being solved under Shuman's supervision. But
unbeknown to me Shuman was working on something other than Mike's murder that would come to
the surface in July. One day in April of 1986, I was taking several pieces of mail from my mail box when a letter fell to the ground. I picked it up and saw the name Percy Sargent with a Maine State Prison return address. I absolutely couldn’t believe it. I hurried inside the house anxious to open the envelope and find out why Percy Sargent—This man Det. Ralph Pinkham had told me sent a call to have Mike "taken care of" —was writing to me. I had also clipped a small article from the Bangor Daily News on April 5, 1981 (less than two months after he sent the call.) that said he had been sentenced to prison in March of 1981 for raping an Ellsworth woman who was treated overnight at a Bangor hospital. It said he could have been sentenced to the maximum penalty of 20 years but was sentenced to eight years. Murderers turning on each other From Percy's letter, I believed that the men who murdered Mike were turning on each other. His letter said that new events may be coming up in Mike's death. He said that Paul Pollard was a new suspect and that Pollard will testify against his half-brother Lionel Cormier and that Cormier is willing to testify against Pollard. He said they would testify against each other to have robbery charges dropped. Apparently, Percy was willing to turn on Pollard and Cormier because he said there was much more he could tell me. Derry decided to connect a tape recorder to my phone before we contacted the prison to let Percy know that we were willing to speak with him. We were told that they would give Percy a message and that he had to call collect. Shortly after our message to Percy he called. I spoke with Percy first and a day or so later Derry spoke with Percy. Carl "Bucky" Buchanan, Richard's private investigator had his daughter, Sue, transcribe the conversations. During my conversation with Percy he said that "those two guys, (Cormier and Pollard) they did something dirty that night. But what he told Derry was very interesting. He said Cormier and Pollard were at his family’s home, and then “They went back out to Lucerne; tried to make like they’d—he’s called Lionel Cormier up or something to come out there and pick him up.” This was the first time we had heard that Pollard and Cormier were at Sargent’s mother’s home before Pollard's call to Cormier and then went back to Lucerne to stage a call. Percy also told Derry that Mike was shot. That would be the reason why Mike was on the floor before the fire was set as Fire Inspector Ryan had told me. In CME Ryan’s letter he said, “Portions of the head were severely burned and absent.” Was that caused from a gunshot? Percy told Derry "They’ve never asked me one question about that fire. I’ve never been—not one investigator has ever asked me one question about what happened that night; and I sat in that county jail right after the fire, for four or five days waiting bail, and not one cop ever questioned me or anything, ’cause they didn’t give a #*&#, you know?” He also told Derry "[Y]ou want to be sure to tell Thomas Goodwin that not one person has ever asked me about this whole case, you know; no DA, no cop, nothing.” Regardless, neither Shuman, Pinkham nor assistant AG Goodwin ever spoke with Percy. I felt confident that this information was something Shuman could use in his arson/murder investigation. The men Pinkham had told me were involved in Mike's murder were turning on each other. Shuman said no one would talk. Well, one of the murderers were talking now. Surely this was important information. But neither Homicide Detective Shuman nor Assistant AG Thomas Goodwin were interested in Percy Sargent’s letter or the taped conversations Derry and I had with him. Shuman's response about Percy’s letter was how did he know that it was actually Percy who wrote the letter. I still have the envelope with the return address and the postmark. And he claimed the audio tapes were doctored. Percy Sargent's information about armed robberies materializes July of 1986, three months after our contact from Percy Sargent, Marshal Stern, Mike's attorney, was back in the courtroom trying to defend his client, Richard Sargent, against testimony from Shuman and Pollard concerning Richard committing a five-year-old armed robbery. The armed robberies had become Shuman’s (the lead detective on Mike's murder) priority. I had felt his coldness toward me, but I didn't realize how dishonest he was, but I would soon find out. The evening of July 9, 1986, I received a call from Attorney Stern. He said he thought I might be interested in a trial scheduled to begin in Penobscot County Superior Court the next morning and the person who would be testifying - Paul Pollard. I assumed the trial Stern said was happening the next morning was what Percy Sargent told Derry and I about in April. He said, “... I’m going to court there this year sometime on this whole thing. This Paul Pollard’s implicated myself, my brother (Richard Sargent), and his brother (Lionel Cormier) in a robbery.” I thought at last I would get a look at the last person who was in the cottage with my son the night he was murdered and was seen fleeing into the woods away from the murder scene. I was also hoping to get a chance to speak with him. Since Pinkham had told me about Pollard more than five years earlier, I had wondered where this mysterious fleeing man was. Pinkham and Shuman had told me that they had no idea where he was and had no reason to locate him because he wasn’t a suspect in Mike’s murder and that he would also have lost his life if he hadn’t escaped. Shortly before the trial started, I met Richard Sargent. I had had such a strong hatred toward him. I especially hated him when I saw him on the local news with a big smile on his face after his arrest for Mike’s murder. I had also been upset with him when he dared to contact Derry to say he wasn’t guilty of Mike’s murder. He, like his brother Percy, told Derry that Paul Pollard and Lionel Cormier had killed Mike. I didn’t believe him at that time. I believed in the state’s arson/murder case against him and the other two men regardless of the cruel treatment I had received from the State of Maine law officials. While talking with Derry, Richard didn’t implicate his brother, Percy, at that time, but he later wrote me a letter saying Percy sent the call to have Mike take care of. While talking with Richard he claimed that the state police had tried to frame him for Mike’s murder; and now Shuman and Pinkham were out to get him because his attorney had gotten the arson/murder indictment against him dismissed. Richard also said that he reported to the authorities that the unidentified body found under the week-old pile of fire rubble was Mike. Richard said he knew this because the morning of Feb. 18 Cormier and Pollard arrived at his mother's residence. He said Cormier told him that a body would be found in a fire in Dedham and that Cormier also told his sister and mother that morning that a body would be found in a fire in Dedham. Richard said Pollard had no color in his face; he was as white as snow. He said he was confident that they were not going to be able to find him guilty on the testimony of Paul Pollard, a murderer. Percy had also told Derry that Pollard and Cormier were at his mother's home the morning of Mike’s murder. July 1986 armed robbery trial Roger Johnson and William Meyers, also indicted for Mike's murder, arrived at the courthouse on the second day of Richard Sargent’s trial. Before the trial started I sat in the courtroom talking with Johnson and Sargent. Meyers mostly sat quietly listening to us. Here I sat with the three men that I hated and strongly believed had taken my son’s life. The men told me that Maine State Police Detective Shuman had tried to frame them for Mike’s murder. I told Johnson that I would never forget how terrified he looked the day (December 7, 1985) he was led out of the courtroom in hand cuffs and leg chains after his arraignment in Penobscot Superior Court. He said he had never been so scared before in his life. Men accused of arson/murder offer discovery documents Johnson offered to give me his discovery documents that his attorney had given him when he was arrested for Mike's murder, if I wanted to come to his home and pick them up. “Maybe you can do more with them than I can,” he said. I thanked him and told him I would love to have the documents. He gave me his phone number and directions to his home in Winterport, about 23 miles south of Bangor, and asked me to call when I was ready to come get the documents. Richard said he had taped conversations between himself and Lionel Cormier during the time Cormier was in the Penobscot County Jail waiting for his robbery trial that he could give me. He said his attorney, Marshal Stern, still had most of his documents, but he could give me what he had if I wanted to copy them. He said he lived in Poland, Maine, located about 118 miles south of Bangor, and said he could bring the material as far as Augusta (68 miles south) if I wanted to come there to pick them up. I asked him also to give me his phone number and I would call him and let him know when I could meet him to pick up the documents. Shortly, after the trial was over I contacted Roger Johnson. He had a large manila envelope filled with documents ready for me when I arrived. I was anxious to read the documents and as soon as I got home, I spread the documents out on my bedroom floor and sat down to sort them out. There was a wealth of information and so much to absorb. I first divided the documents by years. The Maine State police 1981 arson-murder investigation. It included Wilbur Ricker’s 1981 fire Marshal reports; MSP Allen Jamison 1981 fire marshal report; Det. Shuman's arson/murder investigation with statements; Det. Ralph Pinkham's arson/murder investigation with statements and many other reports: autopsy, death certificate, and lab reports. There was also the 1984 Maine State Police arson/murder investigation. It included informant Sharon Sargent's 1983 interview with the Bangor Police, Shuman and Pinkham's 1984 interview at the Bangor PD and Sheriff Carl Andrew's 1984 interview with Sharon while she was incarcerated at Andrew's jail. There was also an interview with another police informant and interviews of the three men after they were jailed for Mike's murder. Detectives Shuman and Pinkham's 1981 statements ended on March 11, two weeks of statements in their words of what was told to them. Percy Sargent and Lionel Cormier were never interviewed. |
| Fire Inspector Wilbur Ricker's 2/18/81–2/24/81
fire report MSP Cpl. Allen Jamison's 2/18/81--2/24/81 Fire Report MSP Det. Barry Shuman 2/24--3/11/81 Homicide-Investigation MSP Det. Barry Shuman 2/24--3/11/81 statements MSP Det. Ralph Pinkham 2/24 3/11/81 Homicide Investigation MSP Det. Ralph Pinkham 2/24--3/11/81 statements EVIDENCE |
|
It was a beautiful and warm evening sometime the last of July 1986
when I drove the 118 miles to Augusta to meet Richard Sargent near the old Zayre store in a small shopping center parking lot. Richard wasn’t there when I
arrived, but he and his girlfriend arrived shortly afterward in a small red
convertable sports car. |
| I stay in touch with Richard Sargent After meeting Richard at his armed robbery trial in July I stayed in touch with him. He was giving me information as his attorney made it available to him. One thing he gave me is a November 14, 1986 affidavit his attorney J. Hilary Billings had drafted for a Judgment of acquittal or a new trial for Richard. Attorney Billings had contacted Gus Fassler, the Director of the Federal DEA in Maine, and in his affidavit Billings gave a detailed description of his conversation with Gus Fassler. Fassler said his report had been disseminated to the Maine State Police in March of 1984, eleven months before Shuman's Feb. 12. 1985 visit to Paul Pollard. News reports defense attorney's accuse Shuman of perjury November 25, 1986. BDN reported that Richard Sargent and Lionel Cormier's were sentenced amidst perjury by Sgt. Barry Shuman. December 3, 1986, The BDN reports Attorneys Billings and Harris argued for new trials on the basis that Det. Barry Shuman committed perjury. December 28, 1986, John Lovell did a long article on Mike's murder and my struggle to find out who killed him and why. Page 2 of article I search for Paul Pollard After finding Paul Pollard’s crimes and listening to the hearings in November and early December concerning Shuman’s perjury, I decided to try find Paul Pollard. I had heard him testify in August (four months earlier) at Cormier’s trial that he had just graduated from Assumption College in Worchester, Massachusetts. He testified that he had done only menial jobs and had never held a job for any length of time before going to college. Yet according to Robert Smith’s testimony, Pollard was dealing in the stock market, renting apartments on Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, and driving rental cars—all being financed from arm robbing drug dealers. I called Assumption College in Massachusetts and spoke with a woman who was quite willing to answer some questions. She gave me Pollard’s home address in Alexandria, Virginia and she also told me that his college funds came from Alaska’s Vocational Rehabilitation Program. I then found information that Pollard’s so-called father, Owen Pollard, was the director of Vocational Rehabilitation for the State of Maine. Many disabilities qualified for the Vocational Rehabilitation Program. One was drug addiction—Pollard’s qualification. According to Owen Pollard Paul was drug addicted and was hospitalized during his first year of college. And Cormier told Richard, in their recorded conversation, that Paul was addicted to drugs and hospitalized. I learned that a long residency period in any state was not required, but I was never able to find out why Pollard applied for the funds in Alaska (where his mother lived) rather than Maine or Massachusetts where he lived. The day, I received Pollard’s phone number in Alexandria, Virginia, I called him but when he found out who I was he immediately hung up on me. I kept calling back until he finally answered. During Pollard’s 1989 deposition he said he called Maine State Police Det. Shuman before he would answer my call. “I had called to tell him that Mrs. Cochran had been calling me.” |
| 1987 |