AUGUSTA, Maine — The deputy superintendent of a state prison in Penobscot County was arrested Tuesday on theft and official bribery charges.
Gerald Merrill, 61, of Abbot, was booked into the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor around noon Tuesday after a warrant had been put out for his arrest, according to jail records. He is facing felony charges of theft and bribery in official or political matters.
Detailed records on the alleged crimes were not available in a Bangor court on Wednesday, though records indicated he was being held on $50,000 and was barred from contact with certain companies. He will make an initial court appearance at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Officials with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and Maine Department of Corrections did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking comment Wednesday morning. It was not immediately clear if Merrill had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Merrill, 61, has been a deputy superintendent with the corrections department since 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is listed as working for Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, which houses male inmates about 27 miles northwest of Bangor.
Merrill describes his role on his LinkedIn profile as steering “all operations including budget management, human resources, employee relations, plant maintenance, warehouse supply and regulatory compliance.”
He previously worked as the policy development coordinator for the DOC and as a compliance manager and investigator for the state, according to his LinkedIn page.
From 2014 to 2018, Merrill was an adjunct professor at Kaplan University, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and master’s degree in criminal justice and law enforcement administration, per his LinkedIn profile.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
