GRAFTON TOWNSHIP – An Oxford County sheriff’s deputy was impaled on a tree branch Thursday afternoon while uprooting marijuana three miles into woods in the Grafton Notch State Park area.
Sheriff Lloyd “Skip” Herrick said Friday that Chancey Libby of Mexico was flown to Rumford Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was released Friday.
“I saw him at the hospital this morning, and he seemed to be doing good,” Herrick said. “The good news is that he is going to recover, but he will be out of service for a while.”
Libby, the marijuana eradication coordinator for Oxford County and Deputy of the Year in Maine in 2004, was working with Maine drug enforcement agents, and Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield police at a large field of marijuana near the Maine-New Hampshire border, Herrick said.
Drug enforcement agent Tony Milligan said Friday afternoon that a ground team was working “in a very remote, rugged and challenging area” about three miles into the woods, while he and Rumford Patrolman James Bernard were overhead in a National Guard helicopter piloted by Mike Pratt.
Herrick said Libby was with Mexico Police Chief Jim Theriault in an older clear-cut area littered with dead trees, stumps and logs.
“He was pulling up plants when he apparently either slipped or tripped, and fell into the sharp end of a tree limb, causing impalement in the pelvic area,” Herrick said.
The branch went into his backside at a 45-degree angle, he said.
“It was a very bad injury. He was in a lot of pain, but they had the bleeding under control,” Milligan said of officers with Libby.
Milligan said officers on the ground notified the helicopter crew.
Rather than risk further injury to Libby or officers trying to carry him out, Herrick said, Pratt “took the initiative and tried to get the helicopter in there.”
The pilot lowered the aircraft into the woods while watching the rotor on one side, Milligan watching the other side, and Bernard watching for obstructions to the tail rotor.
“It was a heroic effort to get this small helicopter down into the clear-cut. It ended up straddling old, downed trees to get Deputy Libby out within 7 to 10 minutes of the injury. It was quite a feat,” Herrick said.
Twenty minutes after the 4:30 p.m. incident, the helicopter landed at Rumford Hospital and Libby was in the emergency room, Milligan said.
Both Herrick and Milligan said Thursday’s accident was the first time an officer had been injured during a marijuana eradication operation.
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