The Windham County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office issued a letter on Monday questioning the credibility of Bellows Falls Police Officer Joshua Lake, a candidate for Windsor County Sheriff.

The letter was sent to the area defense lawyers and was co-signed by Windham County’s top prosecutor, Steven M. Brown Jr., and by Assistant Attorney General Domenica Padula, chief of the criminal division.

Lake admitted “he exaggerated” when talking about a crime he said he witnessed while off duty, according to the letter obtained by Vermont News First.

“The Vermont State Police conducted an investigation involving Bellows Falls Police Officer Joshua Lake involving statements he made while off duty during a conversation with an on-duty New Hampshire Police Officer, a person he considered to be a friend, regarding a crime he said he witnessed off duty,” the co-signed letter stated.

“When asked by Vermont State Police investigators about the statement, Officer Lake stated he exaggerated what he told the New Hampshire Police Officer,” Brown and Padula wrote.

The letter from the prosecutors comes one day after Vermont News First and the Vermont Standard, citing public records, reported two independent investigations have failed to corroborate claims Lake reportedly made that his law enforcement wife pointed a gun at him in December 2025 and had abused their child two or three months earlier.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office explained Monday that prosecutors were mandated to file the letter, which is a public record.

“This is a notification required by law. Prosecutors have a legal obligation under the law to notify the defense of any issue that may impact a witness’s credibility. The letter was sent to satisfy that obligation,” an office spokesperson told Vermont News First.

Lake, reached by phone on Monday, said he was unaware of the letter from the prosecutors.

It was unclear if the letter would impact his status with Bellows Falls Police, where he has been a full-time officer for less than two years.

Bellows Falls Village Police Chief David Bemis said he was aware of the letter.

“We will be looking into things,” Bemis said.

He said Lake was on his regular days off.

Village Manager Aaron K. Patt told Vermont News First he was on a day off and would answer questions tomorrow.

The story unfolded when an on-duty Walpole (N.H.) Police officer said in his written report that Lake, while off-duty, had confided in him on the evening of Dec. 14, 2025, that Lake’s wife had pulled a gun on the family while they were in a truck about a week earlier and also that she reportedly abused their child, public records show.

Then-Walpole Police Cpl. Joshua Healy, who is required by law to report any claim of child abuse, followed the law and made the proper report up through the chain of command, including notifying Lt. Roger Landry, records show.  Healy, who has since been promoted to sergeant, wrote that he was especially concerned because the case involved the use of a firearm.

“I stand by my officers,” Walpole, N.H. Police Chief Justin Sanctuary told Vermont News First on  Monday.  “We followed our protocols.”

The chief said both are experienced officers and worked their way up through the department.  Healy has more than five years with the department, and Landry is a 10-year veteran.

The Vermont News First report on Sunday noted the Lake/Healy conversation sparked a flurry of criminal justice activity and brought in the Windsor County Sheriff, the Vermont State Police, the police chiefs in Bellows Falls and Walpole, N.H., the Windham County State’s Attorney and the Vermont Attorney General’s office, among others.  Walpole Police also notified the Vermont Department for Children and Families.

In the end, the claims reportedly made by Lake about his wife were “not substantiated,” according to an internal administrative investigation by the Windsor County Sheriff’s Office filed July 15, the records show.

His wife, Mykala Eisner-Lake, 20, initially agreed to speak with the Sheriff’s Office and then backed out, the report said.  Palmer said in declining the interview, Eisner-Lake denied the allegations made against her.

Eisner-Lake had offered a “no comment” Sunday when reached by phone by Vermont News First.

Joshua Lake, 30, reached a few minutes later on Sunday afternoon, told VNF the two incidents never happened.

When asked if a Walpole Police officer had made false statements about the incidents, Lake said he was losing cell phone service.  He promised to call back, but Vermont News First still had not heard from him 24 hours later.

In a follow-up call on Monday afternoon, Lake did not contest the report by the Walpole officer nor anything in the news story.

Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer’s internal report completed two weeks ago followed a letter from the Vermont Attorney General’s Office a month earlier that said it would decline the prosecution of Lake’s wife based on the lack of evidence from a criminal investigation by Vermont State Police, records show.

“From our review of the case, we do not believe we would be able to meet the legal standard that is required by law,” prosecutors Jennifer A. Nelson and Nicholas Battey, who are assigned to the criminal division in the AG’s Office, said in a one-page letter shared with Vermont News First.

Palmer had to wait until after the criminal investigation by Vermont State Police was finished before he could start his internal investigation.  Palmer compiled an 11-page internal affairs investigation report based on interviews and reports, including with Bellows Falls Police and neighboring Walpole (N.H.) Police.

The words “not substantiated” are typed in the determination box on the cover sheet of the internal administrative report.  The phrase is used to close out the report when it lists the two allegations:  “domestic assault involving a firearm” and “injury to a child,” the report notes.

It was unclear exactly where the two incidents were alleged to have happened, including whether they were in Vermont or New Hampshire.

The Lakes were known to be living in Rockingham in Windham County at the time, so Vermont authorities took the lead, records show.   Vermont State Police were eventually asked to do the independent criminal investigation.

Lake now lists the town of Chester in Windsor County as his residence on political materials.

Lake is one of three candidates running as a Democrat for county sheriff in the Primary Election on Aug. 11.  He is facing Capt. Claude Weyant of the Windsor County Sheriff’s Office and Sgt. Christopher Norton of the Windham County Sheriff’s Office.

The primary winner will take on the expected Republican candidate, Lt. Richard King of the Windsor County Sheriff’s Office, in the General Election in November.

Lake told Vermont News First on Sunday it appeared somebody was attempting to make the domestic incident report into a political issue because he was running for Windsor County Sheriff.  When asked who, Lake did not provide a name.

Palmer wrote in his report that the investigation found Lake’s conduct very troubling.

The sheriff said the investigation showed that Lake never reported either the gun or the child abuse allegations at the time each supposedly happened, but later made those troubling claims to a police officer with another department while in the midst of a dispute with his wife.

Lake urged the Walpole, N.H. Police officer to not share their conversation, Palmer said.

Healy, the Walpole officer, followed the law about reporting child abuse claims, only to have Lake later state he never made those comments, Palmer’s report said. Cpl. Healy was insistent that he got the comments by Lake correct, Palmer told Vermont News First in a phone interview over the weekend.

In the end, Palmer said the investigation noted “serious concerns about the role, motives, timing, truthfulness and conduct of the reporting party (Lake) which bear directly on the weight his statements can be given.”

The sheriff also wrote that Lake “is a certified law enforcement officer who, by his own account, witnessed his wife point a firearm at himself and his infant child, yet made no report to any Vermont law enforcement agency, to his own department, or to child protective services at any time in the roughly one week that followed. When he did disclose the allegations, he did so informally to a personal acquaintance at an out-of-state agency, in the midst of a marital dispute, and expressly asked that officer not to repeat what he was told,” Palmer wrote.

“He likewise provided no details regarding the alleged injury to the child, an incident he claims occurred months earlier and also never reported,” the sheriff wrote.

“The timing, manner, selectivity, and requested secrecy of these disclosures, made by a trained officer who understood the reporting obligations they would trigger, raise legitimate questions about the reliability of the account and the circumstances under which it was offered. These concerns do not, and cannot, disprove the allegations; they are noted because they materially limit the evidentiary value of the sole source supporting them,” Palmer said.

He said Officer Lake’s conduct “as a certified officer of another agency is a matter for his employing agency and the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, and the facts documented here are available to those authorities upon proper request.”

Under the law, any possible complaint to the VCJC concerning Lake or his wife is unlikely to become public until it is brought before the council.

Lake told Vermont News First he did not expect any allegation to go to the justice council, which oversees the Vermont Police Academy.

Eisner-Lake was a relatively new hire at the Windsor County Sheriff’s Office and was considered a probationary deputy sheriff, records show.

She was placed on administrative leave one day after the complaint was received in December 2025 and remained there until she resigned in February, records show.

Eisner-Lake initially agreed to participate in the internal affairs interview, but later withdrew the offer, Palmer’s report noted.