ALBION -- Investigators with the Maine Attorney General's office are trying to determine whether a Maine State trooper was justified in shooting and killing an Albion man last month.

Johnathan Sullivan, 34, of 50 Main St., died Aug. 4 after a confrontation in which police say Sullivan was armed.

The trooper who fired the fatal shot, Derrick Record, is still on paid administrative leave pending the final determination, as is standard procedure when there is a fatal shooting involving a police officer, said Bill McKinley, who is acting as Record's attorney.

This was not the first time Record, a 10-year veteran who worked out of the Skowhegan barracks, has been investigated for his use of force.

Record was suspended after two previous, unrelated incidents, one for "using unnecessary force" and one for making a false arrest, according to documents released by Maine State Police in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Morning Sentinel.

Those prior incidents will not be considered in the current investigation, McKinley said.

"No, they're not relevant to the investigation that the attorney general is doing," he said. "As required by law and, I think appropriately, they will investigate what transpired in Albion in a vacuum."

Maine Attorney General spokesman David Loughran confirmed the shooting investigation will be "strictly focused on that incident of the use of deadly force."

In the first incident detailed in the police documents, on April 29, 2003, Record made a false arrest, according to a letter from the Maine Department of Public Safety. The June 17, 2003, letter to Record said the arrest "was an inappropriate use of your discretionary law-enforcement powers."

The Morning Sentinel reported in a May 2003 article that in this incident Record became angry after a car scratched his cruiser in the parking lot of a Tri-County Mental Health Services office in Farmington. The collision caused a reported $400 worth of damage to the vehicle.

Record confronted Ed Miller, the Farmington unit's director, in the lobby and ordered him to turn over the names of clients who had been at the facility at the time. Miller refused, telling Record that client-therapist information was confidential under state and federal law.

Several people, including Miller's supervisor, looked on as Record handcuffed and arrested the mental-health facility director. Record then threatened to return and arrest other staff members until they gave him the information he wanted, Tri-County attorney Elliott Epstein said. As Record was driving Miller to jail, Epstein placed a call to the attorney general's office.

"When we were made aware the arrest had occurred, we advised the officer to change his course of action and unarrest (Miller)," Andrew Robinson, assistant district attorney for Franklin County, told the Sentinel after the incident.

After an investigation, Maine State Police Chief Col. Michael Sperry wrote of the incident, "This conduct on your part is unacceptable, and is in violation of State Police general orders and core values."

Sperry proposed that Record serve a two-day suspension and apologize personally and in writing to Miller and his staff. Sperry later reduced the suspension to one day but still required Record to apologize.

In a separate incident, Record was suspended for eight days for "using unnecessary force at the Franklin County Correctional Institute," according to documents released by Maine State Police. The released documents do not note the date of this incident.

Record was ordered in a 2004 agreement to turn in his weapons, identification and his patrol car during his suspension.

On March 27, his first day of work after the suspension, Record was ordered to take further training on the issue of use of force, the agreement states. The document itself, entitled "Agreement between the Bureau of State Police and the Maine State Troopers Association," and marked "draft" is not dated, but signatures at the bottom are dated in February and March of 2004.

Maine State Police declined to provide a description of the incident that precipitated the eight-day suspension.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com