Middlesex sheriff kills self, police say

[harvey007]

Source: Boston Globe

WELLS, Maine — The longtime sheriff of Middlesex County, James V. DiPaola, was discovered dead yesterday from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in an oceanfront resort in Wells, Maine, authorities said.

DiPaola, a 57-year-old Democrat with more than 30 years in public service, had announced abruptly a week ago that he would retire in January, after being questioned by the Globe about his plans to collect a state pension while continuing to serve as sheriff. He had also acknowledged an ethics investigation into his office.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/28/middlesex_sheriff_kills_self_police_say/

[Poll_Blind]

1. I read the whole article on that one- genuinely don't know what to make of it.

:shrug:

PB

[Ian David]

2. When Republicans are investigated for Ethics violations, they just go on Dancing With The Stars. n/

[Delphinus]

6. Keen observation! n/t

[Bucky]

3. Suicide over a pension scam? There must be another shoe waiting to drop.

There's got to be more involved that just a little embezzlement. Maybe the scam was gonna cost him his job, too. But still, suicide seems awful severe compared to actual crime he committed.

[FinGovi]

7. I believe

that suicide can be seen as a "solution" to the problems one faces. Many suicides are spontaneous, they say. RIP.

[KT2000]

4. Our new police chief is collecting

a pension while getting paid as our police chief. He just has to take a couple days off a month to qualify for the pension to be paid.
This is really common.
Heck - our county hired a consultant who collects a military pension, paid him hugely for 18 months and then gave him 6 moths pay for severance with the project was done.
In our crooked little town this is called taking care of your own.

I don't see why the sherriff would worry so much about that.

[Kat45]

5. I saw that on the news tonight and I was shocked.

I've been seeing his story on the news, and it didn't seem like the ethics stuff was off the charts; seemed par for the course for politicians these days. I have to wonder if something else is going on, something that we don't know about yet, because what's been reported so far does not seem like it would drive someone to suicide. The news report said he left a long suicide note. I wonder if the contents will be revealed or if they'll be kept private.

[CTyankee]

8. I was driving back to CT from MA today and heard an NPR story on this.

It's quite a mystery. They were saying that the contents of his several paged suicide note would probably become public.

Nobody seemed to be able to figure it out...the media hadn't really gone after him, if anything he was held in some esteem for changing his mind about the double dipping.

What a sad story...my guess is that the guy was suffering from depression and reached a point where he had no "lifelines" left...

[activa8tr]

9. The downplay of the "ethics investigation" in the article is what may be..

the major factor.

The ethics investigation was SEPARATE from the retirement pension and elected office-holding, (which is legal in Mass).

The ethics investigation is over campaign funds. Downplayed for someone who was a player in Mass Dem politics, but may have had some shaky campaign finance doings this last election.

Again, just re-stating the allegations I am hearing. No proof of allegations, but definitely separate from the retirement pension issue.

[MBS]

10. it's really a tragedy

He had developed unusually enlightened policies for dealing with a number of problems. He was a good sheriff, and he even seemed to enjoy his job. And he was just re-elected, by a strong margin.
It's really a shame. : (