NORTH HAVEN — With cheers, honking horns, sirens blaring and big smiles, North Haven turned out to welcome Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Lemoi home with open arms, following his graduation from the Maine Law Enforcement Academy, Dec. 17.

Lemoi’s homecoming was even more heartfelt, for it called just nine days after his North Haven home was heavily damaged in a fire.

He sent along the video of his North Haven return, saying, “I’d love to see the people of North Haven be recognized for how wonderful they are as a community.”

Graduation ceremonies at the 40th Basic Law Enforcement Training Program were was cancelled, due to a case of COVID-19.

“The cancellation of the formal graduation doesn’t in any way diminish the achievements this class has made over these 18 weeks of rigorous training and we are all very proud of their commitment to the law enforcement profession,” said Rick Desjardins, director of MCJA, in a Dec. 17 news release.

The BLETP is an intensive training made up of practical and academic training that prepares cadets for a career in law enforcement, and includes training on motor vehicle stops, defensive tactics, firearms training, and emergency vehicle operation and control. In addition to the training, cadets must meet a rigorous physical training regimen. Cadets spend five days per week on campus, returning home on weekends. The officers will be joining state, county, and municipal agencies across the state as full-time law enforcement officers.

On December 8, a fire on North Haven caused extensive damage to the Lemoi home.  Lemoi was away at the Maine Law Enforcement Academy and the fire was discovered by his wife and daughter.  

Knox County Sheriff Tim Carroll told the Knox County Commissioners Dec. 14 that  Lemoi would  graduating on Friday and both he and Lemoi are overwhelmed by the amount of community support and outpouring.  

“North Haven, the community, everybody,” he said, at the meeting. “Law enforcement agencies from out of state were calling and asking what they could do and what they could send. South Portland had a toy drive and I swung through Southern Maine and picked up a bunch of toys for the child and gift cards. Then I got a call last night from Scarborough asking if they had a Christmas tree because they wanted to donate a Christmas tree. The outpouring has been amazing.” 

Carroll said North Haven especially has been forthcoming with help and he feels a lot of it is the way deputy Lemoi has approached law enforcement on that island. Carroll said he is obviously very involved with the community and to have that much support he is obviously doing it right with community policing.  

Carroll said the academy has allowed him to be at home this week as he tries to clean things up and he will take his final test via zoom.    

“He was hired about a year and a half ago as a full-time deputy,” said Carroll. “Typically, within the first year of employment if they are not certified by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. Due to COVID, he received an extension and that’s why he’s in the academy, now.” 

Deputy Lemoi was in his last week at the academy in Vassalboro when the fire occurred. The residence was a house owned by the town of North Haven and provided to the deputy and his family through their contract with the county and the sheriff's office.   

The home was heavily damaged in the fire and the family lost two dogs. The family has moved into a private residence rented by North Haven and they will remain on the island.  

Carroll said the deputy is dealing with the disaster, but there are emotional ups and downs associated with it.  

“There’s the emotion of what happened and thankfully his wife and child are OK,” said Carroll. “They’re the ones who discovered the fire when they came home. And they did lose two dogs out of it, so there is that emotion.” 

The dogs were family pets and not connected with Lemoi’s work as a deputy sheriff.  

Carroll said that at the same time Lemoi is overwhelmed with the amount of support and encouragement.  

“It is something that they just couldn’t imagine,” he said. “Especially from North Haven and it all comes back in my opinion to the job he’s going out there. He’s fair, and the people respect him and when something like this happens there was just this huge outpouring from the year-round residents as well as the summer residents. It was great to see. It’s the kind of community policing we love to see.”