Thread: Inmate Accused of Writing Threatening Letter to Gov. LePage

Leroy Dunn

By Diana Bowley, BDN Staff

Posted Feb. 03, 2011, at 4:32 p.m.

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A Penobscot County inmate being boarded at Piscataquis County Jail has been charged with terrorizing after allegedly writing a note describing how he planned to kill Gov. Paul LePage.

Leroy Dunn, 29, of Bangor, who is incarcerated on drug charges, is expected to make his initial court appearance on the charge on Feb. 28 in Dover-Foxcroft District Court.

Dunn allegedly had written a letter to LePage on white lined paper and then folded it up and pushed it under his cell door into the prison hallway on Jan. 29, according to Investigator Guy Dow of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department.

Dow said inmates who want to send a letter typically enclose them in envelopes and slip them under their cell doors for the guards to mail.

Dave Harmon, jail administrator, said Dunn’s letter was read because it was not in an envelope. Jail officials cannot censor an inmate’s mail, he said. Stamps are placed on the letters and notations are made that the letters come from a correctional facility.

The folded letter from Dunn’s cell, which allegedly was signed by Dunn, was graphic in detail about how he planned to kill the governor, whom he said he hated, according to Dow.

According to police, it is unknown whether Dunn, who has a lengthy criminal history mostly for theft, ever has met LePage.

Dow said he contacted LePage’s security and conveyed the contents of Dunn’s letter.

LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt confirmed last week that the governor had been notified about a threatening letter. On Thursday, Demeritt declined to comment on Dunn’s case.

WWW.new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/03/ ... r/inmate...

Its already been ruled hundreds of times that inmates have no privacy rights. Now the prison could have its own policy about censoring or checking mail but any way it goes they have full authority to check.

I have been employed at different prisons and I will be the first to say most all prisons are very strict on screening incarcerated offenders mail, incoming and outgoing mail. There are special prison officers whose jobs are only to work in mail rooms and check mail for contraband and any other items that can be shipped in and out of prisons via mail.