Steve Drake isn’t ready for retirement. The former Damariscotta police chief, in a June 10 interview, said he has “too much to pass on” to consider hanging it up just yet.
Drake’s career in law enforcement spans 31 years. His father, retired State Police Lt. Roger Drake, became a Maine State Police trooper when his son was six years old. As early as eighth grade, the young Drake knew that was what he wanted to do.
Drake served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring as a sergeant in 1980. In Aug. 1980, he was hired as a patrol officer at the Wiscasset Police Dept.
Over the next two-plus years, Drake graduated from the Municipal/County Police Academy and the Maine State Police Academy. In addition to his job in Wiscasset, he moonlighted as a patrol officer for Waldoboro and a reserve deputy for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. In Jan. 1983, he joined Maine State Police Troop D.
“Early on I decided that I liked criminal work,” Drake said, and in 1986 he was promoted to detective.
One of the young detective’s first assignments was assisting in the investigation of the July 1988 kidnapping, torture and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry.
Drake’s job, originally, was to ride with Sarah’s mother, Debbie Crosman. Years later, after the arrest and conviction of Dennis Dechaine and after the other investigators assigned to the case retired, Drake became the lead investigator during Dechaine’s appeals process (his quest for a fifth appeal made state headlines as recently as last month).
The state police assign old, open cases to new detectives as they arrive, giving Det. Drake another early, high profile homicide case – that of Debbie Dill.
In 1973, someone ran the 18-year-old Dill off the road and, using a hammer, “brutally murdered” her in Purgatory, a village in rural Kennebec County.
Nearly two decades later, a man in a Connecticut prison bragged to a fellow inmate about killing a man in a barfight in Maine with a hammer. Connecticut officials contacted the Maine State Police. The story didn’t add up, and in 1991, the man, Michael Boucher, was convicted of Dill’s murder.
“I got lucky,” Drake said. “The stuff fell for Debbie Dill and I was hooked.”
Drake began tackling old cases on his own, poring over files and interviewing retired detectives. In 1993 he was promoted to detective sergeant, with other detectives under his supervision.
The youngest homicide victim of Drake’s career came along at this time – a six-week-old infant “beat to death.”
“It was after that case, I decided I wanted to go back on the road for a while,” Drake said. “I wanted to refresh why I wanted to be a state trooper.”
Drake returned to Troop D, this time as a patrol supervisor, a position he held for a year and a half, until, in 1996, he took a position as the assistant director of the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, where he’d stay until his retirement from the agency in 2002.
Drake oversaw a wide range of activities at the lab. He wrote manuals, started an evidence response team and gained the highest level of certification the International Association of Identification offers, that of senior crime scene analyst. He also began teaching crime scene, fingerprinting, firearms and tool mark processing at the municipal and state police academies, all while continuing his own education, graduating from Southern Maine Technical College with an associate’s degree in Law Enforcement Technology in 1998.
The crime lab, among its wide spectrum of responsibilities, assists the attorney general’s office in investigations of police-involved shootings, occasionally putting the lab in the difficult position of investigating fellow troopers.
Despite the potential for conflict, lab personnel didn’t allow emotion to cloud investigations. The subject of an investigation “didn’t make any difference,” Drake said. “Evidence is evidence. It tells the truth.”
In Sept. 2001, shortly after 9/11, Drake assisted the FBI in processing the vehicle of hijacker Mohamed Atta in the Portland International Jetport parking garage.
Det. Sgt. Drake arrived at the scene first and lifted Atta’s thumbprint from the vehicle’s rear window before federal investigators arrived.
Drake stuck around to share some “tricks of the trade.” Later, the FBI sent him a letter thanking him for his assistance.
The next year, in May 2002, Drake graduated with honors from the University of Maine at Augusta with a bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice.
A few months later, Drake retired from the state police, briefly going to work as a domestic violence investigator for the Sagadahoc County District Attorney’s office, where his job was to work with victims and local law enforcement agencies to “facilitate more effective prosecution of domestic violence cases.”
District Attorney Geoff Rushlau described Drake as a “careful and thoughtful investigator” known for “a good rapport with the kids when he had to interview them about some very painful events.”
In 2003, then-Damariscotta Police Chief Todd Brackett was elected Lincoln County Sheriff. Drake applied for and received Brackett’s old post.
A Lincoln Academy alumnus who has spent most of his life in Nobleboro, Drake saw the position as an opportunity to serve his community.
Early in his career at the Maine State Police, Drake benefited from the tutelage of several experienced officers. In Damariscotta, he made it his goal to mold “a professional law enforcement agency” by providing training, “both through schools and as a mentor,” teaching interrogation techniques and implementing his philosophy about how to investigate serious crimes.
“I think I accomplished that,” Drake said. “I feel very confident in my guys.”
“I was very lucky to have people that wanted to work and wanted to learn,” Drake said.
A good supervisor grooms a successor, and Drake said he trained acting Police Chief Chad Andrews to take his place.
Damariscotta has not named Drake’s successor.
In Damariscotta, Drake investigated a case where the victim, again an infant, suffered a “spiral fracture,” which is “usually a red flag for child abuse.” Another highly visible case was that of former Great Salt Bay Community School teacher Peter Simonds, currently serving a jail sentence for molesting several students.
Although these cases often grab headlines and inflame the righteous anger of the community, Drake seeks to instill in his officers the importance of every investigation.
“Every case, I don’t care how minor you think it is, whether it’s just a petty theft, a burglary, a massive child pornography ring, attempted murder, aggravated assault – to the victims, they’re all the same,” Drake said. “You give them your best effort, you give them respect, like you would any case, any person.”
“I made sure my officers treat every case like [the victim] is a member of their own family,” Drake said. “I always looked at it as, if this was my daughter or granddaughter or son, how would I want it investigated?”
“The first 48 hours” of any investigation “are crucial,” Drake said. “The longer you go, the easier it is for [a suspect] to say ‘I don’t remember.'”
Drake’s goal in every investigation is to provide prosecutors with a solid case “so, if possible, [the suspect] will take a plea instead of putting the victims through torment,” Drake said.
A good investigator can spot potential defense arguments, and if they can “close those doors in your report, the defense doesn’t have a lot of options and [the suspect] usually ends up taking a plea.”
“Anything to save the victims,” Drake said. “Almost like your own kids. You become so attached.”
A law enforcement supervisor also bears the responsibility of maintaining his officers’ faith in humanity.
It’s easy for a police officer to grow cynical. A saying – 10 percent of the population commits 90 percent of the crime – roughly holds true. The police spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with the 10 percent, and it’s easy to start thinking “everyone’s like that,” Drake said.
It’s Drake’s job, and every chief’s job, to remind the officers “there are good people out there,” he said. “Not everyone’s lying. Not everyone’s a thief.”
Despite Damariscotta’s image as a clean, safe and popular tourist destination, replete with eateries and boutiques, bustling in the summer, picturesque and cozy in the winter – the police see another side of the town.
The underlying issues for the vast majority of the crime in Damariscotta are drug-related, Drake said.
Drake said he probably arrested more people in Damariscotta than he did as a trooper – sometimes the same people over and over again, all with the goal of forcing drug users to enter treatment, often a requirement of probation for drug-related crimes.
Eventually, sometimes after a series of arrests, “I may get a day, I may get two days, I may get three days where a person is finally sober,” Drake said. With luck, the person decides they like the feeling and “make an effort to kick the habit, whether it’s alcohol or drugs.”
“Each time they stay sober, they stay sober longer,” Drake said. “There have been a few that have done it. It’s very hard when you’re dealing with opiates.”
In addition to his work in Damariscotta, Drake strove to increase cooperation between law enforcement agencies across the county and state. If a Damariscotta resident was a suspect in or witness to a crime under investigation by the Waldoboro Police Dept., Damariscotta officers might meet with the resident and report back to Waldoboro – same for the other two municipal agencies and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, creating “a loose, county-wide detective division,” Drake said.
Drake’s experience in coordinating major investigations played a major role in fostering that cooperation. Last summer’s forgery investigation, which culminated in the arrest of alleged counterfeiter Franklin Arbour Jr., involved at least half a dozen agencies with Damariscotta in the lead.
The agencies also apply for grants together. Drake himself wrote or co-wrote several grants, including the grant that brought the county $226,000 for a prosecutorial assistant to focus on drug crimes. Another Drake-authored grant brought in crime scene kits for every cruiser in Lincoln County.
Youth Promise Executive Director and retired LCSO Sgt. Mary Trescot worked with Drake during her law enforcement career and continues to do so today, as Drake serves on the Youth Promise Board of Directors.
Years ago, Trescot worked on an initiative to develop “community policing sites,” places where police would regularly interact with citizens.
“Steve was a leader of that in Damariscotta,” Trescot said. Drake sent his officers to places like Ledgewood Court “to go out and talk to people, talk to kids and be community friendly,” Trescot said.
As Damariscotta’s chief, Drake invited students working with Youth Promise to study in the department’s conference room after school if they needed a place “to be safe and stay out of trouble,” Trescot said.
Trescot described Drake as “a really good investigator” as well as “a great chief” and a “great leader.”
“He’s a teaching chief,” a chief who passes on his wealth of knowledge to his officers, a rare quality in law enforcement, Trescot said.
Drake resigned from the department May 31. He’s reluctant to speak about the circumstances surrounding his departure, citing the contractual agreement governing his severance, which includes a clause forbidding him to “make disparaging, uncomplimentary, or negative remarks” about Damariscotta Town Manager Greg Zinser, the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen and municipal employees.
“It was an honor to work for the town of Damariscotta,” Drake said. “I’m very proud for having worked here.”
Drake remains the chairman of the Lincoln County Law Enforcement Executive Committee, although his future role in the organization is unclear. He’ll continue to teach crime scene processing for law enforcement agencies across the state.
Drake considers it “an obligation” and a matter of honor to continue to pass on his knowledge by remaining active in law enforcement. What he’s already passed on at the state and in Damariscotta is “just miniscule” in comparison to what his mentors taught him, he said.
He’s in talks with Brackett to join LCSO as a reserve deputy in order to keep up with mandatory training and maintain his certification as a police officer. If he does, he’ll join one of his two sons, LCSO Deputy Justin Drake, the third generation of Drake men to work in law enforcement. Justin’s brother, Jason Drake, is the staff and curriculum development coordinator at The Leadership School at Kieve in Nobleboro.
As for the future, “my resumé’s out,” Drake, now 54, said. He has a long-standing interest in investigating war crimes and mass graves, such as those in The Balkans, and he’s applying for director posts in overseas crime labs.
He’s also considering “senior mentoring” for crimes against people and, potentially, working as a hired consultant on major cases.
“I love what I do,” Drake said. “There’s nothing more satisfying than solving a case, no matter how big or how small.”