Man convicted for killing Somerset County deputy asks for new trial

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Matt Byrne, Portland Press Herald, Maine
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Feb. 19—The man who killed a Somerset County deputy in 2018 is asking a judge to grant him a new trial, alleging that prosecutors failed to turn over information that could have helped his defense.

An attorney for John Williams, who is serving life in prison for shooting Somerset County Cpl. Eugene Cole in April 2018 in Norridgewock, said prosecutors did not disclose that one of the Maine state troopers who arrested Williams was disciplined for failing to report misconduct of another officer that may have occurred during Williams's arrest.

Trooper Tyler Maloon, who was a member of the arrest team that took Williams into custody, testified that he witnessed another trooper, special agent Glenn Lang, punch Williams after he was handcuffed. Lang's account differed from Maloon's, with Land saying that he punched Williams after Williams resisted being taken into custody.

Other troopers gave varying accounts of the arrest. Some said Williams was immediately compliant, others said he "squirmed" while on the ground and resisted the application of handcuffs. Some admitted that they and others called Williams a "piece of (expletive)" as he was led out of the woods, while other testimony said the suspect was treated well and never taunted.

"Unbeknownst to Defendant, one day before his testimony at the suppression hearing, Trooper Maloon was disciplined for failing to provide notice to his chain of command of a potential act of misconduct and to provide proper documentation of the misconduct," according to a complaint filed Friday by Verne Paradis, Williams's defense attorney. "While the disciplinary report does not reference the John Williams incident, it seems highly likely given the nature of the discipline and its timing that it was related to the misconduct of one or more officers during the arrest of Williams."

Paradis said his request for the disciplinary record from the Attorney General's office earlier this month has gone unanswered.

"The State had an obligation to provide this significant information to the Defendant, with or without a request to do so," Paradis wrote. "It is unclear as to why the State did not provide this information, especially given the fact that Defendant specifically requested any such information and given the fact that the conduct during the arrest was a crucial part of the defense's case."

During his trial and in motions leading up to it, Williams's claimed that he was pummeled and beaten by officers when they arrested him April 28 following an intensive, four-day manhunt. Because of the beating, Williams argued that his confession was coerced and that his fear of further violence led him to admit to shooting Cole.

But a judge decided only to exclude a portion of the confession that Williams gave, pointing to the kind treatment of the detectives who interviewed him after he was pulled from the woods. The judge however did exclude a portion of the taped confession that involved a re-enactment of the crime Williams agreed to perform for detectives.

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