Sumner Power Couple Ordered to Pay $15k in Restitution After Pleading Guilty To Stealing From Vol Fire Dept
Townsfolk are disappointed Bob and Kelly Stewart didn’t get more punishment for their theft, deception and attempted intimidation.
Before we visit Courtroom One of Oxford County Superior Court for the long-awaited outcome of a small-town crime of corruption and greed, I want to introduce our new weekly column, Augusta Confidential, written by a currently-serving member of the Maine Legislature.
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Former Sumner civic leaders plead guilty to being thieves, locals don’t believe justice was served.
This is a tale of two Stewarts, Bob and Kelly. Bob Stewart is the husband and Kelly Stewart is the wife. And on the afternoon of Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, the couple pleaded guilty to stealing at least $15k in money and gear from their local volunteer fire department.
The Stewarts live in Sumner, a small town nestled in the foothills of western Maine. Both were active members of the community and the Sumner Volunteer Fire Department. Bob started with the VFD in the mid-1990s, becoming chief in 2002. Kelly, a VFD member since 2007, also served as the department’s secretary and safety officer.
In addition, since 2011, Kelly served as one of three elected members of the town’s governing “Select Board.” Kelly also has an important day job, working for the State of Maine as “Forensic Outpatient Services Director” at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital, where she currently earns $133,000 annually in salary and benefits.
In May 2023, though, both Stewarts resigned from all their municipal responsibilities in Sumner after allegations arose that the pair misused fire department funds, pocketing some and using some to purchase gear for their personal use and/or to re-sell in their gun store and online shop.
In a plea deal finalized with the Oxford County DA on Friday, the Stewarts admitted guilt in exchange for a deferred disposition that reduces the charge from a Class C Felony to a Class D misdemeanor. More on the deferred disposition later, but as long as the pair stays out trouble for the next year, they won’t do any jail time.
Copping a plea was a very good deal for the married couple. As a couple of gun-fetishizing weirdos, a felony conviction would’ve forced the closure of “Foothills Firearms Safety,” their combo gun shop and triplex of backyard rifle and pistol shooting ranges. Also, thanks to having mere misdemeanors on their criminal records — rather than felonies — they can still retain the licenses and tax stamps to continue to sell fully-automatic weapons and silencers from their store. A felony would’ve also put an end to their backyard biz of selling overpriced bullets to rifle-range customers who don’t have their own land (or understanding spouses) to shoot fully-auto weapons and blast through boxes of ammo.
We’ll hear from some Sumner residents later in this Crash Report, but all the locals I spoke with were very disappointed with the judicial outcome. Simply put, people are angry that the Stewarts stole money and betrayed the trust of their community, while getting a mere slap on the wrist for punishment. Additionally, due to neglect of the VFD equipment and vehicles, people realize that the Stewarts endangered firefighters and the lives and properties of taxpayers. And when confronted with their skullduggery, the Stewarts began harassing townsfolk, including members of the VFD and their families.
The result: serious bad blood between neighbors which is bound to linger for years.
Still not apparent, though, is whether Kelly will retain her hospital bigwig position with Maine’s DHHS at Riverview, where, like I mentioned, she currently is being paid $133,000 annually in salary and benefits. As part of Kelly’s job, she supervises staff and testifies in court in connection to the dozens of Mainers found “not criminally responsible by reason of insanity” for committing heinous crimes like murder, rape and molestation.
According to court documents, Kelly has been on PAID leave since late August 2024. That PAID suspension, oddly, only began one full year after her initial arrest and a couple days after the publication of the August 20, 2024 Crash Report “Sumner Power Couple to Plead Guilty to Theft Charges.” Based upon her annual salary, that means Maine taxpayers have paid around $61,000 in wages and benefits to Kelly while her theft case sauntered its way through the courts.
(Add that sixty-one grand in Maine taxpayer costs to the $60k that Sumner taxpayers forked over to cover investigatory and legal costs. That’s not even counting the funds stolen from the volunteer fire department. Or the expense of the Oxford County Sheriff’s investigation. Or the price of the court proceedings. Grand total = Yikes!)
Equally crazy is that the deal Kelly agreed to last week is the same deal presented in August and she had agreed to sign. Then Kelly was put on paid leave and kept asking for — and getting — five delays until the case was settled. Sounds more like an extended paid vacation rather than an administrative “leave” due to Kelly getting her hand caught in the fire department’s cookie jar.
On Friday, DHHS officials declined to comment on her employment status, saying they don’t discuss “personnel matters.”
Like a Bad Neighbor, the Stewarts are there
I live in the next town over from the Stewarts and have many pals and sources residing in Sumner. Thus, I’ve written extensively about the Stewarts’ theft and misuse of VFD funds. The Case of the $60,000 Gloves, specifically, goes into great detail of their thieving ways. Thanks to the 178-page slightly-redacted appendix to the heavily-redacted 18-page report on the town’s investigation (with the $60k bill footed by Sumner taxpayers,) it’s easy to follow the paper trail that proves the allegations.
A brief recap: The trouble started back in early April 2023, during a meeting of the Sumner VFD, when the rank-and-file discussed, among other safety issues, the lack of enough functioning breathing apparatus, required by law, for the department to legally function. The firefighters knew that the town budgeted the VFD $15,000 annually for equipment and $11,000 for operations. One volunteer firefighter was tasked to get actual budget numbers from the town clerk. And that’s when the Stewarts fell under suspicion. Because in the first three months of 2023, they’d already spent $5,500 of that year’s equipment budget at the Admiral Fire and Safety store in Scarborough, mostly on stuff that had very little to do with firefighting or safety.
Needless to say, folks were very surprised to discover purchases of items not generally used by firefighters — such as expandable batons, plate-carrying tactical vests and pepper spray (in pink dispensers). Plus, according to the receipts and other evidence (including Youtube videos,) all sorts of gear and clothing were purchased by the Stewarts for personal use, including some very expensive flashlights that firefighters never saw.
One of the more obvious smoking guns in this case, though, were gloves purchased with fire department cash — and clearly recorded in the receipts — that ended up for sale in the Stewarts’ gun shop and on their website.
Within a couple days of being confronted with evidence of their crimes, Bob resigned from being Fire Chief and Kelly resigned from both the Select Board and her positions with the VFD. A day later, they dropped off many garbage bags full of VFD gear at the fire station — including a whole bunch of holsters for batons and batons, plus pepper spray, backpacks, gloves and specific law enforcement equipment the firefighters had never seen before.
Despite returning the loot, Kelly began aggressively denying guilt around town. According to multiple sources, she claimed she and her hubby were being framed by other firefighters working in conjunction with a town employee. Then, once the official investigation began, she tried to convince investigators the gloves and other gear in question actually came from the estate of someone who’d recently killed themselves. It’s a confusing bit of obfuscation by Kelly and an obvious attempt at diverting attention away from the facts. I’ve posted PDFs below of both the report and the appendix to the report so you can read the whole damn thing yourself. Which, remember, cost Sumner taxpayers $60,000.
07 31 2023 Investigative Report Redacted
296KB ∙ PDF file
07 31 2023 Appendix To Investigative Reports (redacted) (1)
35.4MB ∙ PDF file
If you read the investigative report, even with the heavy redacting, the hard truth is obvious: The Stewarts were pretending to be civic-minded, while actually ripping off the community. From missing gear to un-inspected fire department vehicles to disappearing funds and other non-legit uses of town monies, the facts were revealed. Locals, of course, began to wonder how long the pilfering had been going on. After all, both Stewarts had unfettered access to fire department finances — and the books — for many years. No telling how many other fiscal shenanigans were covered up or ignored.
Their many years of service to the town didn’t buy the Stewarts the protection they were hoping for, though. In August 2023, the pair were arrested at home, cuffed and stuffed by Oxford County Sheriff’s deputies and charged with “theft by unauthorized taking.” At the time of the bust, Kelly insisted she and her man were innocent. And she continued to tell her allies and customers she was the victim of a conspiracy and frame-job.
In mid-February 2024, though, an Oxford County grand jury handed down indictments for “theft by deception” for both Stewarts.
In May, Kelly’s lawyer told Judge Maria Woodman that his client wanted a jury trial. At the time, he estimated the trial would be 4 to 5 days, since he planned to subpoena a whole bunch of townspeople in order to prove his client’s innocence.
By August, though, the Stewarts’ tune had changed and both agreed to enter a plea bargain with the DA in September. However, however, a series of excuses (mostly from the Stewarts’ lawyers on behalf of Kelly, who was on paid leave from her state job) kept delaying proceedings. Until Valentine’s Day.
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day
At 3:37 p.m. on the cloudy afternoon of February 14th, the pair of Stewarts finally appeared in Courtroom One in the Oxford County Superior Courthouse in Paris to admit their guilt. Also in attendance were ten members of the Sumner community, sitting in the front row, five feet behind the table where the Stewarts sat with their defense attorneys.
To start, Judge Philip Mohlar thoroughly went over the terms of the plea deal, including the $15,000 restitution the Stewarts were required to pay the town of Sumner.
In what appeared to be a purely performative gesture, Kelly suddenly (and somewhat flippantly) offered to write a personal check for $15k right then and there. (Must be nice having that much cash in your personal checking account.) Also, as someone who spends lots of time testifying in court on behalf of the State of Maine, she surely knows personal checks aren’t an acceptable way of paying restitution. After all, she’s a freshly-minted criminal. Did she think the court would take a personal check from a known crook?
The DA quickly set her straight. Only certified bank checks were acceptable. Thus, the Stewarts were given one week to pay.
(A brief aside: One of the peculiarities of this case is how the “Town of Sumner” was the victim of the Stewarts’ crime spree. And, as is the routine in most criminal cases, the D.A. tried to keep the “victim” abreast of developments. In this case, that meant periodic updates for the Select Board, who would then pass along any new info to townspeople as part of the twice-monthly board meetings. During the October 22, 2024 Select Board meeting, for instance, town officials explained the details of the plea bargain. Specifically, the amount of stolen money the Stewarts agreed to repay. According to the plea deal, Kelly would pay the town $4,992.17 in restitution. Bob would pay $9,551.16.)
Once the judge was confident both Stewarts understood the details of the deal, it was time for them to enter their guilty pleas. Bob went first.
“What is your plea to that charge today?” asked Judge Mohlar.
“Guilty,” Bob answered, “your honor.”
“What is your plea today?” the judge then asked Kelly.
“I’m moving on with my life,” she said, with affected weariness. “So guilty.”
Yikes. Talk about equivocating. And as a trained witness who has testified many times on behalf of Maine’s DHHS, she knew her response wasn’t the proper way to answer the judge.
“So guilty is your plea, then?” the judge asked again, to clarify.
“Yes,” she answered, again declining to use the customary “your honor” honorific.
Next, District Attorney Dick Beauchesne told the judge that many Sumner residents were not happy with the plea deal he negotiated with the now-guilty Stewarts. In addition to a petition with over 150 signatures, at least ten concerned citizens had penned letters in opposition to the deal. “I think I can speak for them,” Beauchesne said, “that they are adamantly opposed to the recommendation to the court.”
(In his defense, the DA explained how the lack of a prior criminal record for both Stewarts influenced how the plea deal was structured, in accordance with the current judicial norms.)
Then Beauchesne explained that two members of the community wanted to address the court in order to provide the townspeople’s perspective. The judge agreed to hear their testimony and acknowledged he’d read the letters, petitions and other statements from concerned citizens.
The first speaker was Mary Ann Haxton, a Sumner farmer who served on the Select Board for 14 years, most of which overlapped with Kelly’s tenure on the Select Board. Haxton succinctly explained the events leading up to the town’s investigation. Then she unloaded with both barrels.
“And we concluded that the Stewarts knowingly betrayed their responsibilities as elected and appointed officials of the Town of Sumner and that they stole from the town of Sumner substantial funds to the level of being arrested and charged with felonies.” She paused for a moment. “They continued to deny responsibility to the town for their actions. And the Stewarts conspired to keep the truth away from the rest of the Select Board and from the residents of the town of Sumner.”
Haxton went on to say that after locals heard of the proposed plea deal, they were not happy. “The residents and fire department members were clear that this did not meet their judgement of justice…We are clear that justice will not be served by a deferred agreement as misdemeanors. We submit that those [150 townspeople] signatures reflect a substantial number of our residents who are concerned about this, because we, as a town, incurred the cost of the investigation and the cost of following up with that. We, as a small town with a small budget, will be paying long term for the cost of this behavior and breach of trust.”
A second spokesperson for Sumner residents, attorney Earle Wingate (who lives in a neighboring town) asked the judge to reject the plea deal in order for the Stewarts to receive felony convictions.
“The question is sanctions. A [[criminal]] sentence is to address two things: the conduct of the people and also its effect on the community,” he said. “This was a breach of public trust. I don’t know if this is any less than more publicly known violent offenses, but this was the theft of the trust of the townspeople.”
Then DA Beauchesne addressed the court again, reiterating and in agreement with the town’s argument.
“This is absolutely a betrayal of trust,” he said. “They used funds of the town, not for the proper obligations of the fire department, [but] used these town funds to purchase items that they, in turn, offered for sale in their own firearms store… Items that were patently inappropriate for use in a fire department. Over and over and over again during this period of time. Adding up…of which the state is asking for in restitution. Monies will be paid back, but the trust is gone.”
Next, both of the Stewarts’ lawyers had the chance to address the court, during which both made standard defense-attorney protestations in defense of their clients’ prior good behavior and morals. Also, both lawyers hinted that a trial would’ve been easy for them to win.
Yeah, sure. If a trial for the Stewarts would’ve been a cake walk, then why did your clients agree to pay back $15k plus getting a permanent criminal record?
A quick aside about the defense team for the Stewarts. Kelly’s lawyer, George Hess, appeared to doze off several times, in the courtroom, during the afternoon docket call, just moments prior to the actual proceedings. And secondly, Bob’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, tried to explain away the Stewarts’ purchases of expandable batons (instead of purchasing much needed firefighting equipment like oxygen breathing devices) by asserting the following:
“We had a dispositional conference here, with another judge, and the very morning we were coming here,” Paradie told the court, “there was a huge article on the front page of the Lewiston Sun Journal saying ‘Fire Departments Across the Country Are Arming Their Fire Departments.’”
Hmm. A quick fact check shows he wasn’t accurate with that claim. On Oct. 4, 2024, the Sun-Journal did publish a story about firefighters. “Lewiston area fire departments receive donated bulletproof vests” was the headline and the story explained how the parent company of Poland Spring Water donated $150,000 worth of $1,100 bulletproof vests to Lewiston, Auburn, Poland, Lisbon, Turner and Durham fire departments. But there was no mention of any national trend of arming firefighters with batons. Instead, just to add context here, the vest donations were part of the water corporation’s response to the Lewiston Massacre.
Also, giving crews access to bulletproof vests is vastly different than arming firefighters with pepper spray and expandable batons. And it definitely doesn’t explain why the Stewarts pleaded guilty to stealing at least $15,000 of town funds and spending it on gear for themselves and to sell at their store.
Anyways, my point is not to pick on the defense lawyers. I totally understand Attorney Hess taking a snooze in the courtroom. It must have been exhausting — even with the $175 per hour clock ticking — having to listen to Kelly explain — for the millionth time — how she wasn’t guilty of theft, despite the preponderance of evidence. As for Paradie’s defense of the theft as part of a national movement of “Arming Fire Departments,” even he’s gotta know that’s a lame excuse. Otherwise, he would’ve brought the case to trial and saved the Stewarts from having to pay $15k and having a criminal record.
The Final Judgement
Judge Mohler, to his credit, listened to everyone, and seemed to empathize with the community’s concerns. Also, he noted that it was unusual to see so many people coming out in protest of the plea bargain.
All that being said, he accepted the plea deal because, according to the judge, it met the standard guidelines. The purpose of the deferred disposition hearing was not to start from “square one and independently determine what [the court] thinks would be the appropriate action to be making in the case,” Judge Mohler explained. “My role is to look at what’s before me, this proposed deferred disposition agreement. And approve or not approve it. It’s a limited role, in that sense.”
He went on to explain how the disposition avoided a lengthy and costly trial for the state and “minimizes any correctional experience for the Stewarts,” and that he viewed the plea deal as a compromise and “middle ground” for all those involved.
Interestingly, the judge brought up, for a second time, that if Stewarts failed to keep out of trouble for the next year, the disposition was an “open plea,” meaning they could face up to 364 days in jail and probation.
Which begs the question: what constitutes a failure within the “deferred disposition term?”
Bad Neighbors
As mentioned earlier, I have friends and sources in and around Sumner, many of whom have had intense personal interactions with the Stewarts. And I’ve heard a lot of terrible stories about the pair of now-convicted thieves. After all, the couple have been on the outs with most of the rest of their town for coming up on two years. Aside from a tiny handful of locals, to be blunt, not many people like the Stewarts.
(And the size of their courtroom entourage — a gun store employee and Kelly’s mid-20-something daughter — was proof of their lack of community support.)
The stories I’ve heard… well, some of ‘em would curl your hair. Especially the tales about families disintegrating and marriages dissolving because of Kelly and Bob’s bad behavior. With many of them, I’ve been able to confirm by consulting multiple sources. But — family matters aside — most of those tales were basic run-of-mill assholian behavior: Swearing at folks. Giving townspeople the finger. Blasting armaments into the night. Acting sexually inappropriately. All part of the Stewarts’ ongoing efforts to intimidate and irritate neighbors.
However, there was one allegation I heard from multiple folks in town that felt worthy of checking out with authorities. The claim: Bob had gotten arrested for some bizarre sexual behavior in the parking lot of the Kohl’s in Auburn.
So I started digging, with nothing other than the name Bob Stewart, the city of the alleged incident and the approximate year, sometime in the mid-to-late aughts. Official law enforcement sources were of no help. Court records didn’t reflect anything either. But then a solid lead came in. Someone remembered reading about the, ahem, incident in the local paper.
Armed with scant details, last autumn I stopped by the Advertiser-Democrat newsroom on Main Street in the western Maine town of Norway. After a short chat with the office manager, she decided to break the rules and allowed me — as a professional courtesy — access to the morgue and permission to thumb through the bound back-editions of the newspaper.
(A bit of Maine journalism trivia: the Advertiser-Democrat, founded in 1826, is the state’s oldest newspaper. And, thankfully, despite being currently owned by the “National Trust For Local News,” the struggling non-profit I wrote about in January, the weekly Advertiser-Democrat isn’t dead yet.)
It took less than an hour of flipping through the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 to find what I was looking for: Top of the front page, on Valentine’s Day, 2008 (ironically) was a mouthful of a screaming headline: “Sumner Fire Chief’s Conduct Called Into Question, Following Faxed Police Report.”
The story was bylined, btw, as “Advertiser-staff,” however I know it was actually written by then-reporter Duke Harrington.
“Dateline: Sumner, Maine: The personal turmoil of a western Maine fire chief, struggling through a divorce, spilled over into his professional life this past week, with the revelation of a 2007 summons for indecent conduct.”
Talk about burying the lede. Luckily, the second graf fills in the missing details. “On March 23, 2007, Robert Stewart, 53, of Sumner was cited by Auburn Police Officer Scott Lalibertie on a charge that he ‘did knowingly expose his genitals under circumstances which in fact were likely to cause affront or alarm.’”
The story goes on to explain how police responded, at 2:30 in the afternoon, to a report of a “male masturbating in the parking lot” of the Auburn Kohl’s, aka “the chain department store offering a wide selection of clothing, accessories & homewares.”
Police interviewed two female witnesses who told the cops that Stewart was sitting in his Jeep, pleasing himself while watching customers come and go, with the Jeep’s canvas doors “unzipped and folded open.” The witnesses, according to the cop, actually saw Stewart “continue to masturbate” as they walked in front of his vehicle. According the newspaper, police quoted the women as being “shocked and upset by the very disturbing scene.”
According to the news story, “[Stewart] never objected to the charge.”
About four months later, he copped a plea with the Androscoggin DA. On July 2, 2007, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of “disorderly conduct” and paid a $400 fine. (Though several people close to the Stewarts recall the fine to be $800.)
Yikes.
These days, according to multiple sources, Bob apparently prefers the pleasure of drink rather than those of the flesh.
Kelly, on the other hand, appears to have a penchant for over-sexualizing everything. As one of her former co-workers from Riverview told me, Kelly’s favorite word is “Fuck.” As demonstrated in this workplace photo from October 2023, below, from Kelly’s Facebook, posted a couple months after her arrest for “theft by deception” when her underlings at the state psychiatric hospital dressed up as their boss for a random Wednesday “pick me up and huge belly laugh.”
Also, it’s pretty strange that as the “Forensic Outpatient Services Director” at a psychiatric hospital, she demonstrates an unsafe and cavalier manner with handguns. Like in this video below, from the summer of 2024, where Kelly proclaims “to some girls, size matters” while she strokes the barrel of what appears to be a .357 magnum in a suggestive manner.
First of all: Double-Yikes. Secondly: CRINGE.
I dare you to watch this vid.
Residents Unhappy with Stewarts’ plea
The moment after Judge Mohler left the chambers, I headed for the door. Earlier, I asked courthouse security if I was permitted to film on the steps of the courthouse in order to ask the Stewarts questions when they left the building. Yes, a guard assured me, that was fine.
I set up shop just outside the courthouse exit door. Which also put me in position to speak to townsfolk leaving, including Sumner resident Terry Phillips.
“Well, that was predictable,” she said with a grimace. “Justice was miscarried today. The plea deal was a fix. The fix is in. Kelly still has a job and they still have their gun store.”
Next out the door was Bill Savage, a Select Board member who was elected after the Stewart debacle came to the surface in 2023. I’m a regular viewer of the Sumner Select Board's Youtube channel, so I’m quite familiar with Savage’s on-going frustration with the slow wheels of justice. And how he’s disgruntled that the Stewarts continue to cost the town money.
In the last board meeting, for instance, Savage told residents of another legal bill (one of many) in connection to the Stewarts. “Three hundred and seventy-seven dollars for a two minute phone call” he said, owed to Drummond Woodsum, the town’s then-law firm, pertaining to the theft case.
When I saw Savage leaving the courthouse, it was easy to tell from the look on his face, he wasn’t pleased with the judge’s acceptance of the plea deal. “I’m disappointed. Very disappointed,” he said. “I think the judge did a good job of [verbally] reprimanding them. But that doesn’t go very far.”
Right behind him was Mary Ann Haxton, the former town official who addressed the court. “I’m not happy. I wish the [[restitution]] more accurately reflected the severity of the money costs, of over $60,000,” she said. “We had to have a special town meeting to appropriate and cover those expenses.” She paused. “But the cost to the town was more than financial.”
Stewarts & Sleepy Lawyer Unhappy with Crash
As dusk approached, I stood by the courthouse door, peering inside, awaiting the Stewarts’ exit. Finally, the husband and wife left the building, accompanied by their legal team, plus Kelly’s daughter, an employee of the gun shop and, to my surprise, a pistol-packing courthouse guard.
To be clear, Kelly isn’t a fan of my reporting on her criminal exploits. After an earlier court appearance last summer, she sicced a court guard on me after I asked her why she telling people that she was being framed by other firefighters. That’s why, I’m sure, they had an armed guard — salary paid for by taxpayers — to protect the thieves from the curious media.
Meaning me.
A brief aside regarding my journalistic practices. I don’t shy away from asking folks tough questions. From my days in the 1990s on talk radio and writing for alt-weeklies to my recent investigations of the criminal rapist priests of Springfield, Massachusetts (start listening to my Devils and Dirtbags podcast here) the confrontational interview is just one of many tools I use to investigate and report on ne’er do wells.
All that to say, I wasn’t gonna let the Stewarts traverse public land, down a very steep flight of public stairs — over 40 steps — to get to their cars in the public parking lot without asking them a couple questions. My first query as she walked out the door was simple. “Kelly,” I asked, “why did you try to blame other people if you’re guilty?” Thing is, she didn’t answer. Instead, her now-fully awake lawyer George Hess yelled “No comment! Get the hell away from her.”
Unfortunately for Kelly, Hess, an older fella, is a slow walker and remained stranded, precariously, on the top step as Kelly abandoned her legal protector and rushed, as fast as she could waddle, down the stairs. Which gave me another chance to ask the same question, on behalf of the firefighters and others in Sumner that she claimed tried to frame her.
“Kelly, why did you try to blame other people when you pleaded guilty to this crime? You’ve admitted to stealing the money.”
From the top step, Hess bellowed, “Get away from her, you son-of-a-bitch!”
Again, no response from Kelly as we continued, side-by-side, down the declivitous stairs.
“Kelly, why do you still have a job with the state, getting paid a hundred thousand bucks a year?”
Again, no answer. With her moaning lawyer still stuck up top, like a beached seal in suit and tie, this time it was Kelly’s mid-20-something daughter coming to the rescue. On a brief visit home from New Jersey, the woman was in town to attend her mom’s dispositional proceedings AND attend the gun shop’s Valentine’s Day Dance with free booze for adults. (More on that in a second.)
Anyways, I gotta say, I was pissed when the daughter stepped in front of her momma because multiple pals have told me horrible stories about this young woman. She takes after her mother, more than one person has said.
Halfway down the steps, the daughter started filming me and, while trying to interrupt my line of questioning, she asked me the following question. Verbatim.
“Why are you going after the lower middle class?” she said, putting her phon-cam in my face.
“Shut up,” I said.
C’mon. Lower middle class? Is that how this young lady views her mother? Lower middle class, making over a hundred k per year, plus what she could steal from the volunteer fire department. Until she got caught, that is.
Meanwhile, Kelly’s lawyer is moaning from above, like a wounded toddler in need of a hug, and the court cop starts giving me grief for “obstructing the right-of-way” on the steps.
Wut? I mean, the steps are about eight feet wide. I’m, at most, two feet wide. They had plenty of room on the steps.
Gotta say, though, I felt sorry for the guard. Court on this Friday, Valentines Day, had run much later than usual. The joint usually closes at four. The proceedings didn’t end until 4:20 p.m. And it was after 4:30 by the time he was pulling escort duty for the Stewarts. Overtime, probably, on the taxpayer dime. Working later than expected, he probably wanted to go home and start his weekend.
Anyways, at the bottom of the stairs, there was nothing stopping me from asking a couple more questions.
As Bob and Kelly’s daughter climbed into Kelly’s truck with the vanity plate “Gun Gal,” Kelly headed for the driver’s side door of her gun store employee’s Jeep and climbed in.
Turns out, though, it just appeared to be the driver’s side door. As you can see in the video below, the gun store employee’s trash-strewn vehicle is steered from the right hand side of the car, which either means rural route mail delivery or we’d suddenly been transported to England.
Despite my confusion over the vehicle’s steering wheel placement, I still had time to ask a couple more questions.
“Hey Kelly, why did you steal money from the fire department? You pled guilty to stealing money from the fire department… why’d yah do it?”
Dance the afternoon away
The Saturday after the plea deal was overcast, with a 15 mph breeze blowing from the west-north-west. And in the Stewart’s gun shop, nestled in the foothills of western Maine, Kelly and a handful of friends (about eight, plus the seven person band) danced and danced to live music from 1 until 5 p.m. Those over 21 were invited to drink from the “Cupid’s Valentine” punch, which Kelly boasted had over a dozen boozy ingredients.
That punch wasn’t for her. Nope. Instead, swaying amidst friends, wearing a Snoopy Valentine’s sweater, she sipped from a glass of brown liquor. Whiskey, perhaps? She posted a ton of photos from the gala. Looks like they were having fun. Not a big crowd, especially considering how much booze and beer Kelly and Bob purchased especially for this post-guilty-plea party.
And in the short vid below, Kelly and a young pal bust a move, less than 24 hours after the Stewarts entered their guilty plea for stealing from the vol fire department.
Gotta wonder what she was really thinking during this post-court bash.
She’s probably pissed about having to pay $15,000 in restitution. Relieved, also, to a certain degree, that she avoided the felon label. No problem with her packing heat, concealed, like she always has. And they can keep the shop and gun range open. At least for now. In these crazy days, there’s some money to be made, catering to the clientele who have the cash and other means to purchase fully-automatic weapons and/or silencers from the store and then blast through ammo in the Stewart’s backyard.
But unknowns do loom on the horizon for the pair. What’s going to happen to Kelly’s high-paying state job, now that she’s pleaded guilty to stealing from the volunteer fire department? She can’t stay on paid-administrative leave forever. Even if Maine’s DHHS does keep her on staff, she won’t be useful in testifying in court anymore. Considering her record, she’s obviously not trustworthy.
And sources very familiar with Stewarts told me this: They need her income, otherwise their entire empire comes tumbling down. Especially due to some major debts. How else could they afford the massive renovations to turn Bob’s once-garage into a pine-walled gun shop and party room. Not to mention the two tractors, multiples trucks, her red convertible Mazda Miata, a couple four-wheelers, plus a RTV and their gun collection and the inventory of guns for sale in the store. That’s a lot of stuff to pay for on a “lower middle class” income. For sure.
Also, Kelly’s gotta be hearing the same rumors I’m hearing. Sumner town officials, on the behest of many townsfolk, are considering civil action against the pair. Should be fairly easy to win a settlement. After all, both of them pled guilty and paid restitution.
The deciding factor, I’m hearing through the grapevine, is how much it’ll cost the town to seek justice in the civil courts, since taxpayers have already spent over $60,000 on this mess. No reason to throw good money after bad. Unless a civil judgement recouped it all and refilled the town’s coffers to make up for the cost of the thievery. Plus a little extra — let’s call it an asshole tax — because of all the frustration the Stewarts caused the community.
One more thing
When the news broke in 2023 of the whole sordid affair, the Stewarts’ arrest, etc, was a major story in the Maine media, especially on television. Since then, I’ve been the only reporter covering the thievery. Legacy Journalism, on the verge of drowning, doesn’t have the resources or staff to cover cases of small-town corruption and greed.
However, the Lewiston Sun-Journal should’ve been on this case all along. Sumner is part of their circulation area. And Kelly, as I may have mentioned, is a highly-compensated state employee who pled guilty to stealing from the volunteer fire department.
The reality: crickets. If any coverage does happen, it’s only because somebody in a newsroom read this edition of The Crash Report.
So if you appreciate my reporting on stories that other media avoids, then please become a paid subscriber. Sign up now, before March 17, for six bucks monthly or $60 annually and avoid the price hike and paywall.
Augusta Confidential: Inside the drama, deals and dysfunction
This session is the same bad bills, leadership theatrics and the fight for order in Maine’s State House.
By Reese Calloway, lawmaker
“Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” If that’s the guiding principle of good governance (and The Crash Report) then let’s be brutally honest: Augusta often does the opposite. The comfortable remain comfortable. And the afflicted are handed political soundbites instead of real solutions. Per usual, this session is shaping up to be no different.
The January Delve: Where Good Intentions Go to Die
Every January, we walk back into the State House pretending this session will be different. The first few days are full of pleasantries, committee meetings and empty promises of bipartisanship. But by Week Two, the gloves are off and the chaos resumes. One can very easily draw parallels to high school while observing Legislative behavior and social structures. Cliques emerge, regroup then separate themselves from each other with a palpable “you can’t sit with us” vibe.
You may behold the ever-dwindling endangered species of moderates — everyone claims they want to protect them, but the moment they become inconvenient, they’d rather see them extinct. The right thinks they are spineless traitors. The left thinks mods are an obstacle to progress.
In reality, the work happens in the middle. That’s where deals are cut, policies are shaped and governing happens. Maybe that’s why so many incumbents were knocked off during this election cycle. Who wants to bargain if you just need the majority not to have compromise? The margins are skinny this time. More in the House than the Senate, but many a bill will die in the hallway in between.
Do we have faith that, at some point, the chambers won’t be dictated by the farthest edges of each side? Faith is a strong and subjective word. Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s hard to imagine folks like Billy Bob Faulkingham putting his shit-slinging days behind him.
(Editor’s note: Read The Crash Report about Billy Bob’s Christo-Fascism End Times theology here. And read The Crash Report re: his whale of a lie about a rogue wave capsizing his lobster boat – and destroying his business - here.)
Leadership Antics: A Party in Disarray
Speaking of Rep. Faulkingham—his rise to leadership is a case study of style-over-substance. He presents himself as the working-class everyman, but his policy positions tell a different story. Instead of governing, his leadership has been marked by obstructionism and performative outrage, often putting his party in a weaker position rather than advancing a genuine conservative agenda. This last year, he couldn’t even secure enough support to run for minority leader unopposed. That’s a clear sign his GOP caucus has grown weary of his histrionic theatrics and his lack of real strategy. Billy Bob’s approach to leadership has been more about stirring the pot than setting a clear direction for his party. That has left House Republicans fractured and without a solid legislative plan or competent leader.
Then there’s Rep. Katrina Smith—who seemingly appeared from nowhere, moving from an unremarkable first term to an unexplained rise in leadership. While she touts herself as a fighter for conservative values, her record is a lot of noise with little accomplishment. Her ascent to power within the party seems less about merit and more about ideological alignment with the far-right factions pushing for control. With no major legislative wins under her belt, her rise begs the question: Was she promoted for her ability to legislate? Or because she’s willing to be a loud, unwavering voice for the party’s most extreme elements?
Let’s not forget Senate leadership, as easy as that may be to do. Trey Stewart is giving off the vibe of a non-animated adult Baby Huey. Stewart’s approach to leadership, in general, is akin to his personality, which is lackluster. While his demeanor is pleasant and amicable, when the dude leaves a room, many wonder what the hell he was talking about.
Perhaps the coming months will glean more insight into Stewart’s rise from House to Senate to Senate leadership, but I don’t think so
Leadership in the Senate is generally quizzical. There have been some bright lights as contenders, but they fell into the background. Sen. Rick Bennett, for example, has a well-established history under the Dome, with a reputation of more of a moderate than MAGA. And Bennett was often a voice of reason from his side of the aisle during the last session of budget fuckery.
Some known and expected issues have already surfaced. Rep. Mike Lemelin from Chelsea is still on his sole mission to bring back single-use plastic bags. That’s about as groundbreaking as a rotary phone re-launch. As we heard in a floor speech last session (one that garnered him a censure) if we don’t fall in line, then “his” Christian-Nationalist God will banish all of us to hell. It’s unclear if it’s narcissism or pure delusion that has empowered Lemelin to believe he has control over an omnipotent deity. His weird religiosity, coupled with his reputation for making women in the State House deeply uncomfortable, combined with his creepy and inappropriate staring along with his unsolicited rude comments is NOT GOOD. His ungentlemanly behavior is well-known in Augusta, but rarely addressed. Once again, here he is, still being taken seriously as a lawmaker.
And there’s Ken Fredette, the GOPer from the Penobscot County town of Newport. Yes, that Ken Fredette. A relic of the misbegotten LePage era who has inexplicably re-emerged after a hiatus. During his previous stints in the Legislature, Fredette made a name for himself as a staunch opponent of Medicaid expansion and an obsequious ally of former Governor (and current FloridaMan) LePage’s most extreme fiscal policies. Now, Fredette is back and there’s gonna be some trouble. Because Billy Bob thought it was a great idea to put him on Appropriations—arguably the most critical committee regarding state spending. Given Fredette’s history of obstructing compromise and pushing rigid ideological stances, it’s impossible to see this move as anything but an intentional setup for budgetary chaos.
Meanwhile, no one has told Reagan Paul that heavy-handed Mar-a-Lago Club makeup doesn’t look good under the Dome lighting, even though pancake is the current MAGA aesthetic for both guys and dolls. More importantly, her obsession with banning offshore wind projects raises serious questions. Is she genuinely concerned about the environmental impact of turbines? Or is she just worried giant windmills will disrupt the oceanview she admires while getting her weekly blowout at the salon? Taking her crusade seriously is hard when it’s more rooted in aesthetics instead of substantive policy concerns. Offshore wind represents a critical piece of Maine's clean energy future, but Paul remains fixated on short-sighted opposition that serves nobody but her social media MAGA engagement metrics.
And let’s not forget Rep. Laurel Libby—a fundraising powerhouse from Auburn whose most significant accomplishment isn’t passing meaningful bills, but raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to reshape the Maine GOP in her Stepford-esque image. Libby’s version of “grassroots” organizing is less about empowering everyday Mainers and more about funneling cash to install extremists in key Legislative seats. Libby has effectively turned her campaign into an ATM, collecting massive cash from out-of-state ultra-conservatives while portraying herself as a champion of the little guy.
Meanwhile, Libby’s actual engagement in Maine remains questionable, because her biggest audience isn’t even local voters but national far-right media consumers eager to satisfy her need for clicks-and-likes. Her real base isn’t authentic Mainers, but the echo chamber of the non-profit Maine Policy Institute’s faux-news Maine Wire and its devoted MAGA followers dumb enough to swallow every exaggerated claim and fear-mongering headline Libby pushes. The looming question:, will she make it to committee more than twice? Or will she spend her days on Facebook “Live” reporting from the State House hallways halls, bitching about policy that gets shaped in committee meetings she misses because she’s too busy posting on the socials.
Case in point? The ill-staged protest at the State of the State address in January. Libby and her misanthropic goons stormed the State House in a weak attempt to look like revolutionaries. And that’s despite the fact that more than half of them can’t even read a budget or spending bill. They disrupted lawmakers in the middle of their work, offering nothing but noise and spectacle.
Contrast that with the Democratic rally, in early February, an actual organized protest with over 300 people, a permit and – Heaven Forbid – an actual focused message: Opposition to the radical right’s efforts to dismantle democracy at the federal level. That peoples’ protest was peaceful and structured and reminded us that Democrats, despite their own internal chaos, still know how to actually mobilize when it counts.
Addendum:
Just as I was finishing the final squiggles to the parchment bearing this first edition of Augusta Confidential, another bit of vile spew came over the cloakroom transom, spawned by the aforementioned Rep. Libby.
If you thought her far-right intolerance and “don’t say gay” mentality couldn’t sink any lower, wrong. On Feb. 17, Libby, as Maine MAGA’s favorite self-appointed morality cop, took to the socials to publicly attack a local trans-teenager from outside her own district.
Why? Probably because of Libby’s obsessive crusade against LGBTQ+ people and she can’t resist disinfo-izing an innocuous claim that a trans student performed slightly better on the girls’ track team than she did competing with the boys two years prior.
(Editor’s Note: We redacted, with white ovals, the faces of several teenagers in the photo Libby posted.)
Earth-shattering, right? And important work being done by an elected official, right?
Never mind facts, fairness or the well-being of actual kids. Libby, happily a hypocrite, stands pretentiously on her own soapbox, constructed of the Christian-Nationalist version of family she wants portrayed in America.
Creepily, though, Libby, allegedly an adult, seems to enjoy attacking children online. She appears to get kicks from mocking “the other” while trying to stifle the modern kids’ right to free speech and to live the lifestyle they chose.
Of course, Libby’s playbook comes straight from the far-right outrage factory. Ready-made bad-faith fear-mongering mixed with cruelty presented as virtue. Sadly, shameless bullying of minors to score cheap political points has become the MAGA norm.
And for Libby, that’s her favorite fund-raising tactic. Running campaigns fueled by haters, promulgated by incels and re-tweeted endlessly by chains of bitter bros. If there were a medal for bigotry, Libby would be bringing home the gold.
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Fine reporting Crash. I have a question. You wrote in part “As part of Kelly’s job, she supervises staff and testifies in court in connection to the dozens of Mainers found …”
In a court of law … if you are caught in one lie, the court can remind the jury that the witness is a known perjurer. That discredits their testimony. Seems to me every one committed where Kelly testified for the state should receive a get out of jail free card.
Like the Massachusetts people whose convictions were overturned bc the State Lab director was found to be altering evidence..
Crash, Do not forget the cash cow for Rep. Libby's ATM.