Final in a four-part series Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed budget restores to the state judicial system a position that in the past has helped to improve the hiring and training of state bail commissioners. According to Leigh Saufley, the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the governor has agreed to fund a criminal process manager, aMore

Sometimes it takes a death. Sometimes it takes four deaths: a mother, her two children and the man who killed them and then killed himself. The deaths of Amy, Monica and Coty Lake at the hands of their husband and father, Steven Lake, may be the tragedy that brings major reform to how the criminalMore

“These four people died needlessly …” – From a psychological autopsy of the triple murder and suicide in Dexter, June 13, 2011 The study rests on a shelf deep in the documents room at the state library. It has been sitting there since September 2006, most of its recommendations going the way of the hundredsMore

Part three of four Jon Gale, a Portland attorney, periodically serves as “lawyer of the day” in District Court, representing defendants in arraignments. The defendants already have had their bail set by one of the state’s bail commissioners, independent contractors whose position was created by the Legislature 128 years ago. What Gale sees in thoseMore

Part 2 of 4 In December 2010, police in Cumberland County tried to stop a speeder. He led them on a chase and ended up crashing on an I-95 exit ramp. The local bail commissioner was told the charges were driving at a criminal speed and operating with a suspended license. He set the bailMore

Part one in a series If you are arrested in Maine, everyone you deal with — with one exception — will be a professional. The police officer who arrested you is certified and has at least 100 hours of training. The prosecuting attorney, your own lawyer and the judge all went to law school andMore