Lincoln County Commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of requesting an investigation by the Attorney General's office into the possible involvement of an off-duty Lincoln County law enforcement officer's misuse of a Taser.

Earlier this week Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett issued a press release indicating an internal investigation had begun to see if the sheriff's department personnel or equipment was involved in an incident that occurred at a Knox County Deputy Sheriff's bachelor party last summer.

What prompted the two investigations was the video released by Village Soup.com showing a former Knox County Deputy, who is now a Maine State Trooper, being shot with a Taser at his bachelor party last summer, handcuffed, hog-tied with duct-tape, oiled and feathered, and paraded through downtown Camden strapped to a lawn chair in the back of a flatbed truck.

"I learned about the incident for the first time on Friday, April 11 when I was notified that a member of the sheriff's office may have loaned a Taser to a Knox County Deputy without authorization.

"If the video aired by Village Soup is valid and a Taser was used, it is not clear if that Taser came from this agency," Brackett said. "Our investigation will focus on that question as well as under what circumstances the Taser unit was loaned to another agency."

"Videos such as this, truthful or otherwise, can damage the public trust in law enforcement's ability to use the Taser prudently," he said.

The sheriff's department investigation is expected to be completed with in two weeks. Brackett said that his agency would cooperate fully with any other investigation specific to this Knox County incident.

Commissioner Sheridan Bond read a statement which said, "Recently, news stories have described a potentially tragic event in a neighboring jurisdiction involving off-duty law enforcement officers partying. It has been reported that this event also included the unauthorized use of a Taser."

"As commissioners, we are ultimately responsible for the operations of all county offices, and would be irresponsible for us to ignore this matter," Bond said. "The citizens have a right to know all the facts, and to know who was involved and who wasn't involved as it gives all law enforcement a bad name."

"We need to determine what role, if any, our sheriff's office played in this event," Bond said.

The Knox County Sheriff, Donna Dennison, referred the case to the Attorney General office to see if anything criminal had taken place.

David Loughran, from the Attorney General's office said Tuesday afternoon that his office is currently looking into the event.

According to Maine law, using an electronic weapon on anyone is a Class D crime, unless its use is by a law enforcement officer in an official capacity.

According to Sheriff Brackett, the Taser has been a very successful tool. It is a relatively new tool to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. Currently five units are in use and have been for two years.