By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

PARIS – The family of a mentally ill man shot to death by police six years ago in Sumner is suing Oxford County and several law enforcement officers.

Daniel W. Bennett II was 32 when he was shot by police outside his home on Upper Sumner Hill Road on the afternoon of Jan. 21, 2000. The Maine Attorney General’s Office found officers were justified in the use of deadly force.

Sheriff “Skip” Herrick said at the time that officers attempted to talk Bennett out of the house he shared with his mother and grandmother, and when he emerged he fired a shotgun at officers, and they returned fire. Deputies Christopher Wainwright and Matthew Baker were identified as the ones who fired the shots, according to Chief Deputy Jim Davis.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Oxford County Superior Court, suggests that police were inadequately trained to cope with a mentally ill person and that they escalated the situation.

Bennett’s mother, Arlene Bedard, his grandmother and sister name several defendants, including Baker, who is now a sergeant, and Wainwright, who is now a lieutenant, as well as Herrick, Davis, Lt. James Miclon, Maine State Police Trooper Timothy Turner, and the county.

The defendants had not filed a response in court by Monday.

The lawsuit points out that Wainwright has shot and killed two people in the line of duty, including Albert Gonzales in 1997 during a well-publicized case in Mexico.

The Attorney General’s Office found that police acted appropriately in that case as well. Later, the Gonzales family settled with the county’s insurer for an undisclosed amount.

Wainwright, who is seeking the Republican nomination for sheriff in the June primary, is at the FBI Academy and unavailable for comment.

Sheriff Herrick said Monday that the Attorney General’s Office ruled that the Bennett shooting was justified, which satisfied him that the police actions were lawful. “I know these things happen. It’s a terrible, terrible thing,” he said. “We take an oath to serve and protect within the statutes of law.”

He said his deputies undergo mandatory training to handle people who are mentally unstable.

Portland attorney Thomas Connolly, who is representing Bennett’s family, said by phone Monday that the police file on Bennett differs from his own findings. “There are going to be some factual differences between what was alleged preliminary and what we believe to be true,” including circumstances surrounding the shooting.

He said police escalated the situation. “They used the power of arrest and intimidation with firearms and precipitated the issue,” he said.

Bennett, a former U.S. Marine and self-employed woodsman, lived in one side of a home and his mother and grandmother in the other. Reports at the time said police were called to the home after a woman told them Bennett had killed a dog with a baseball bat and was threatening to kill her and others at her residence.

On the day Bennett died, the suit argues that Bedard asked police to take him to Augusta Mental Health Institute because he was becoming increasingly agitated after not taking his medication for several days.

According to the suit, Bedard told a dispatcher that Bennett was not violent but “just wasn’t right.”

Connolly said Bennett was despondent over the dog’s death, and that it was unclear whether Bennett actually killed the animal.

Connolly said Bennett suffered from depression. He said on occasion police had transported Bennett to mental facilities and once arrested him and took him to jail.

Connolly said the family approached the Sheriff’s Office in 2001, but no settlement resulted. He said the family has acted now because by law they have to file the suit within six years of the incident.