Two Maine selectmen face recall after carting off local farmer’s pot

 

TIME TO RECALL ADAM KNIGHT AND RICHARD CARAVIELLO, VOTERS

Two Maine selectmen face recall after carting off local farmer’s pot  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/19/metro/two-maine-selectmen-face-recall-after-carting-off-local-farmers-pot-pigs/?et_rid=1745480152&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter

By Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff,Updated September 20, 2021, 1:19 a.m. 

Eric Kelley develops varieties of marijuana on his land in Lebanon. A web of accusations around a theft of pigs and marijuana, and a recall effort of town officials, contribute to the “lawless Lebanon” reputation of Lebanon, Maine.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

LEBANON, Maine — This wooded town is sometimes called “Lawless Lebanon,” an unsettling nickname that even Selectmen Chairman Charles Russell Jr. doesn’t quarrel with. It’s a sprawling place with no police force, a reputation for nasty name-calling in its politics, and now a divisive recall election aimed at Russell and three other town officials.

The vote, scheduled for Tuesday, is partly about the freewheeling mud-slinging that can characterize the public discourse here. But it’s also about accusations that Russell and Selectman Ernest “Butch” Lizotte Jr. raided a local farm and helped steal approximately $100,000 in marijuana plants in the dead of night, knowing that the owner was in jail.