Sheriff Gallant probably shouldn’t be anywhere near a cell phone again, he clearly has some issues.
I’m not sure how he thought this wouldn’t get out, or maybe he just didn’t care. Either way, Gallant is the latest example of a person in power being busted for creepily using their perch to solicit sexual favors from their subordinates.
In case you didn’t know, this is very illegal.
Via, The Sun Journal:
Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant resigned from his position Wednesday at around 4:30 p.m. amid accusations of sexual misconduct.
On Nov. 21, Gallant admitted to a television station that he had sent a sexually explicit cellphone photo, taken at the sheriff’s office while he was in uniform, to a woman whom he has refused to identify.
The same day he stepped down from his position as head of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association, saying in a prepared statement that, by sending the photo, “I bring discredit to myself, to my uniform, my badge and the Maine Sheriffs’ Association.”
“The appropriate thing for me to do is not remain in a leadership position with the association and to step down,” he said.
As if this wasn’t disgusting enough, Gallant was also being investigated for TWO other separate incidents in which he’s again accused of inappropriately using a cell phone trying to get loose:
In one complaint, Gallant is alleged to have sent multiple sexually explicit photographs of himself to a male deputy’s girlfriend and asked that Gallant, the deputy and the woman have sex together. When the deputy rebuffed the offer, Gallant threatened his job, according to Ray Cote, the business agent for Teamsters Local 340, which represents the officers of the sheriff’s department.
In the second, Gallant is alleged to have typed a message on a cellphone indicating he wanted to perform oral sex on a male employee, and then showed the person what he had typed, Cote said.
What’s even more disturbing than these actions themselves, is the culture that must exist here that this man really seemed to be operating this way completely unbothered & confident that even if someone spoke up, he’d be able to evade any punishment.
Flip the page for a copy of the official letter of resignation: