By C1 Staff
MACHIAS, Maine — Corrections officer Troy Lyons, a 12-year veteran of the county jail in Machias, resigned Thursday morning before a scheduled termination hearing.
Lyons was suspended with pay after an in-house investigation concluded that the multiple injuries for which Lyons was treated on the night of Oct. 29 were self-inflicted, according to Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith.
Smith said that he concluded the assault was a hoax because “there were just too many improprieties and inconsistencies in his story.”
Bangor Daily News was originally told, by Lyons, that he was talking on a cell phone outside the jail around 10:30 pm Oct. 29 when he saw a shadow moving along a fenceline on the jail’s perimeter. He went to investigate, was struck and fell to the ground. Lyons claimed that his injuries included cuts on his face and injuries to his chest, a shoulder and a knee.
“Things just didn’t add up, and he changed his story,” Smith said. “One time he said he was investigating a noise, another time checking out a shadow. He said he was hit head-on, but said he didn’t see anything.
“He also said he was on the ground for four or five minutes. This happened the night of the hurricane, and he wasn’t muddy and he wasn’t wet.
And, although the area where he said the assault took place isn’t covered by a surveillance camera, he doesn’t show up on other surveillance cameras, coming or going.”