The embattled sheriff of Middlesex County, James V. DiPaola, fatally shot himself today in an oceanfront resort in Wells, Maine, amid an ethics investigation of his office and questions about his personal integrity, according to Wells police.
A statement released tonight by the police in Wells, a coastal town in southern Maine, said DiPaola was discovered by hotel workers lying on a bed, with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
There isn’t much to say, other than that our thoughts and condolences are with his family.
Please share widely!
So sorry to hear this.
You and I are unlikely ever to know the whole story.
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p>Given the work I do, though, there is a feel of emotional instability, and an unmet need for treatment.
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p>I know first hand that depression can kill – and it is the folks left behind who suffer. My own grandfather committed suicide before I was born.
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p>I remember sitting next to my mother, who as 92 at the time, and we were looking at old photos. A tear ran down her soft, softly wrinkled cheek and she said, “He never knew you.”
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p>So for anyone reading this, who is thinking about suicide or who fears the stigma of getting help for a mental health issue – get treated.
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p>You need not suffer alone, depression and other forms of mental illness are like any other illness – TREATABLE and NOT a moral issue.
This is very sad….but I would be remiss of I did not mention the intense media scrutiny that he has been under since the reports of his so called pension scheme and the accusations made by his former employee on Fox25. The media and some ill intentioned bloggers seem eager nowadays to destroy a person’s reputation and career.. This case was no different.
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p>I do not know the circumstances around his death or the truth about the charges levied against him – but I was saddened and a bit angry over the coverage in the media and comments in the blogosphere concerning the Sheriff.
This is appropriate right now?
Tell me…..
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p>It was ok when he was alive to kick him when he was down – like everyone else…Read what was in the newspaper or TV News and just type away.
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p>Please!
Maybe after his funeral? Maybe after the holidays?
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p>With people like you out there, it’s a wonder anyone goes into public service.
I beleive that public service is a noble profession – I have worked in government for many years and I meant no disrespect to Mr. DiPaola and his family. (I have actually met him several times)
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p>If you read my original comment more closely, you will notice that I am actually taking to task the media coverage of the recent allegations against him. I would go so far as to say that the negative coverage, certain nasty commentary and blog comments may have weighed heavily on Mr. DiPaola.
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p>Any public official in this day and age goes into the profession knowing the public scrutiny they must face. However, I believe certain elements of the print & electronic media and the blogoshere actually go out of their way to destroy a person and their reputation as a way to further an agenda, win awards or just be plain nasty. This is what I am referring to.
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p>I believe it is a most fitting time to voice this opinion and concern. It is not only the sad circumstances about DiPaola – but a concern about the obsesive negatiove coverage about public service, and public employees – all you see in the media is references about hacks, government waste and allegations of possible wrongdoing.
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p>Once in a while we could use read a nice story about a public figure. What about the State Rep. who coaches little league or a City Councilor who volunteers at his local school or battered women’s shelter and a Senator who raises money for homeless children, ensuring that thay have toys and clothes during the holidays.
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p>I think now is the time.
What you’re saying, and the implications of it, is truly vile. Give it a rest, and if you still want to make this point next week, make it next week. Or whenever — I don’t know the right time either. But it’s certainly not now, and not this thread.
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you’re right, Capital D.
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p>There needs to be a conversation about this. Soon. If not now, then very, very soon.
“destroy” a bit heavy-handed, in the wake of what we all agree is a tragedy?
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p>No one, but no one, in the press or the blog world wished Sheriff DiPaola any actual harm. I am deeply offended that Capital D seems to be suggesting otherwise.
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p>Maybe it’s just rhetoric, but it’s exploitive and it’s offensive.
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…and I don’t think Capital D was suggesting that. My mind goes back to the suicide of Vince Foster who in his suicide note accused the Wall Street Journal of “lying without consequence” and lamented that “in Washington, ruining people is considered sport”.
But Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons, wasn’t he?
(sarcasm off)
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p>I am, frankly, sympathetic to Capital D’s views. The priority of the mainstream media is profits, period, especially when that circumstances put it in conflict with its responsibility to show the truth and/or facts. Blood, gore, and personal tragedy (whether career failure or suicide) sell.
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p>It seems to me that Sheriff DePaola has more in common with a tragically-flawed hero of Greek mythology than anything else. Yes, he seems to have been a good and noble public servant. Yes, like all of us, he was imperfect.
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p>The story of his impending downfall was profitable. It was profitable because at least some of us welcomed it — welcomed it enough to raise ratings and therefore sell advertising.
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p>I note that the media also profits from pandering to the predictable surge of public sympathy for his family after this tragedy. There has always been a voyeuristic aspect to our culture, an aspect that almost all of us share. Having been through a vaguely similar public tragedy in my own extended family, I am perhaps hypersensitive to this voyeurism. In my own case, our family took far more comfort from strangers who either kept their silence or who said “I’m sorry for your loss” than from those who used the occasion for effusive (and ultimately selfish) public outpourings of “sympathy”.
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p>I am reminded of Matthiew 6:5-6:
on how you define “destroy.”
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p>People may not wish “actual harm” but actual harm can still be result by carefully omitting certain facts, embellishing others….implying with a sly wink, nudge, nudge. It’s all part of the game. While Christopher was thinking of the Vince Foster tragedy….I was recalling the lines of an old Eagles song:
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p>http://www.ebaumsworld.com/vid…
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p>This song was released in 1982 and I don’t think we’ve learned anything.
Your wish came true.
reported the Sheriff’s resignation/pension “in the line of duty” are getting some support too. Anonymous bloggers are on their own.
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p>I only knew Jim as a State Rep and he was a sweetheart when it came to listening to the low income people tell their stories and ask for his support on budget amendments. Voted the correct way too.
If this tragedy did not happen I am sure that people in the media and in the blogosphere would have continued to pile on him and continue to comment on the alleged accusations against him.
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p>Now is a better time than any to point out the hypocracy of those who will now remmber him as a wonderful public servant (which he was) and last week were only speaking ill of him.
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p>I am sorry if anyone is offended but its the truth.
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p>p.s. I am offended at being called “vile”
I made a comment about what you’re saying. For the record I stand by my comment, and will continue to do so no matter how many times Suffolk Democrat downrates my other comments. However, also for the record, I’ll have no further comments on this thread. I’m well past the law of diminishing returns. I think my peers realized that before I did.
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As Deb indicates, suicide is so sad for those left behind. I won’t speculate on what might have happened to bring him to this decision. I hope that his years of service will be remembered.
…but let me try.
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p>Jim DiPaola came to our Sudbury Democratic Town Committee some years ago during an election campaign, and gave his stump speech and answered questions. We’re not the easiest Town Committee to talk to — we don’t tend to ask softball questions — and I think it’s fair to say that he made an excellent impression. I in particular (and I know there were others as well) was impressed by his commitment to civil liberties (as exemplified by his opposition to the Patriot Act), his abhorrence and active opposition to racism, and his concern for the mainly poor young people who often ended up as his resposibility, and the initiatives he took to follow up on them after their release.
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p>I’m embarrassed to say that before he came and talked to us, I wouldn’t have even known that there was a sheriff in Middlesex County, much less who it was. But after that, I always felt good checking his name when I voted.
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p>This is indeed very sad.
One of Sheriff DiPaola’s goals was that as many inmates as possible left his jails with job skills and GEDs. He said the best way to decrease recidivism is to increase skills and hope.
Things aside we lost an amazing public servant
Judging from the reaction it may have been the first some in the congregation were hearing this news.
Whether what he did was right or wrong there was no reason to bring him or his family into this in a personal way. His daughter has cleaned my teeth many times and was the nicest person in my dentists office and knew me and my dad by name. Her father was a good public servant. He was not your typical law and order politician focused on conviction rates, he did a lot of compassionate things. The culinary program for former felons to get them back on their feet in a positive way, the summer camp that opened up law enforcement career opportunities to thousands of inner city youth including close friends who are in police and fire fighting training programs now because of that man. He cared about his employees, he also made sure that foreclosures were as quick as painless as possible and did his best to stop them. Like Tom Dart in my other home county, he was a sheriff who showed how the office could advance progressive causes. A terrible situation caused by what I think is a terrible misunderstanding. Hopefully his family can find peace.