PARIS – The Oxford County commissioners voted unanimously Friday afternoon to take Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Christopher Wainwright off the county budget committee.

“We voted to eliminate him,” Chairman Jim Carey of Paris said.

Wainwright’s attorney said Friday night that he intends to file suit.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor met with the commissioners, he said, advising them that Maine law prohibits a full-time deputy from holding any other elective or appointive county or state office. He said commissioners have authority to remove a budget committee member under the law cited by O’Connor.

Wainwright, a Canton selectman, was nominated and elected at a countywide municipal officers’ caucus held this week to choose county budget committee members to represent them. Each commissioner – Carey, Steve Merrill of Norway and Fred Kennard of Rumford – also got to choose one selectman each from their respective districts to add to the panel.

Wainwright’s attorney, John Chapman, attended Friday’s meeting.

“He wanted to make a court case out of it,” Carey said, “but that’s not what the meeting was about. It was just a meeting for the commissioners, and we made it public to decide what we’re going to do.”

Chapman said in a phone interview Friday night that he intends to file a lawsuit against the commissioners individually and the county, citing three points.

First, he said, Wainwright was denied due process because commissioners:

• apparently decided before Sept. 7 that he was ineligible to serve because it would be a conflict of interest;

• did not notify Wainwright of Friday’s meeting; and

• did not give him a hearing.

Chapman cited a letter dated Sept. 7 that commissioners sent to Wainwright informing him he was ineligible to serve.

Secondly, he cited state law that the Legislature amended in 1995.

“They changed the law in 1995 to allow Chris Wainwright and others like him to serve on budget committees.

“The notion is that this (budget committee) is a county office,” he said. “They don’t get a salary. The county doesn’t pay these guys a cent,” he said, so it does not qualify as a county office.

And third, Chapman advised, commissioners don’t have authority under state law to remove budget committee members elected by municipal officers.

“My client has been deprived of an office without a hearing,” Chapman said.

He said he intends to file a lawsuit against the commissioners individually and the county in Oxford County Superior Court within the next 30 days.