Sheriff Took Training with Tisbury Police

Controversy Over Nantucket Sheriff Spills Onto Vineyard Turf with News of Assault Weapon Instruction Here

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

The Nantucket County sheriff, mired in controversy, including over his recent decision to buy assault weapons, obtained training and certification for the weapons several weeks ago from the Tisbury police department.

Dukes County Sheriff Michael McCormack confirmed this week that he referred Sheriff Richard Bretschneider to the Tisbury department for the assault weapon training.

Mr. Bretschneider also has arranged to permanently loan an iris eye-scanner to the Dukes County sheriff's office. The scanner, whose uses include locating missing children, is one of two ordered by the Nantucket sheriff, with the other scanner slated for his own use.

Mr. McCormack said Wednesday there was no quid pro quo involving the loan of the scanner and the arrangements for weapons training.

"The two are totally disjointed," he said. Mr. McCormack said he and other sheriffs in southeastern Massachusetts, including Plymouth and Norfolk counties, already had been working on the scanner initiative when the question about weapons training came up.

Originally, he said, the sheriffs had talked about ordering three scanners, with the third going to Barnstable, but Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings then said he had funding in place to get his own.

The scanner equipment and its link to a national database costs about $25,000. The scanner has not yet arrived at the Dukes County sheriff's office.

Repeated telephone calls by the Gazette to Mr. Bretschneider were not returned this week.

The weapons training of the Nantucket sheriff on the Vineyard is one of the latest developments in a controversy involving Mr. Bretschneider and other Nantucket officials. The controversy has been the subject of a series of stories in the Inquirer and Mirror, a weekly newspaper published on Nantucket and the Gazette's counterpart.

Mr. Bretschneider had purchased two Bushmaster M4A3 assault rifles and ammunition in late December from a Hyannis store for $1,900. But Mr. Bretschneider lacked training or certification to use the rifles, which he stored in the special operations center at the Nantucket fire department.

A review of Nantucket sheriff's department's invoices by Inquirer and Mirror reporter Jason Graziadei uncovered the purchase of the assault weapons.

C. Elizabeth Gibson, who administers Nantucket County as well as the town of Nantucket (both county and town cover the same geographic area), ordered Mr. Bretschneider, an elected county official, to remove the weapons from the fire department building. Mr. Bretschneider did remove the weapons, which he took to an undisclosed location.

A question surfaced over whether Mr. Bretschneider was qualified to use the weapons, which he told the Inquirer and Mirror would be available for homeland security and law enforcement.

Several weeks ago, Mr. Bretschneider got in touch with Mr. McCormack to ask whether his department could provide him with automatic weapons training.

Mr. McCormack replied no one on his staff could do so, but that he knew of a Tisbury police officer, Tim Stobie, who was qualified to provide the training. He checked with Mr. Stobie, who checked with Tisbury police chief Theodore (Ted) Saulnier.

Chief Saulnier said this week that he approved the training, given that Mr. Bretschneider had a law enforcement background (before being elected sheriff, he worked on the Nantucket police department) and he had a legitimate need for the training.

The chief said Mr. Bretschneider paid for the training, which included Officer Stobie's overtime hourly rate and the cost of the ammunition. The total charge to Mr. Bretschneider by the department was not available. The training was conducted at least in part at a sand and gravel pit in Oak Bluffs used by local police and private citizens for gun practice.

Mr. McCormack said the recent interactions with Mr. Bretschneider reflect the ongoing cooperation among local law enforcement agencies in recent years.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, Mr. McCormack said, the bywords have been "partnership and collaboration at all levels. We share resources, develop regional plans."

Precedent exists for sharing equipment, Mr. McCormack said. The Dukes County sheriff's patrol boat originally was used by the Barnstable sheriff's office, while a car used in the Dukes County sheriff's alternative sentencing program formerly was used by the Nantucket sheriff.