LEWISTON — Two assistant attorneys general who had been defending the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and its director, Dr. Sheila Pinette, in a federal whistle-blower case have asked the court if they can withdraw as defense counsel.

In a joint motion filed Friday, Assistant Attorneys General Susan Herman and Ronald Lupton asked the U.S. District Court if they could each withdraw as counsel “due to a recent and unexpected development.”

No details of that development were provided in the motion.

One of the duties of the AG’s office is to represent the state of Maine, including defending the state and its agencies in court. But, according to the motion, “the Office of the Attorney General is unable to continue to represent either the CDC or Pinette in this litigation.”

The case, filed by former CDC official Sharon Leahy-Lind last October, alleges that Pinette and others in DHHS and the CDC violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by retaliating against her when she refused to destroy documents connected to the funding of the Healthy Maine Partnerships program.

Leahy-Lind’s suit also alleges defamation and violations of state and federal medical leave acts, the Maine Human Rights Acts, the federal Civil Rights Act, the Freedom of Access Act and the First Amendment.

The defendants have asked the court to dismiss three of the complaint’s eight counts, including claims of defamation and First Amendment violations. No date has been set by the court to hear arguments on that request.

Leahy-Lind’s attorney, Cynthia Dill of Troubh Heisler in Portland, said she was surprised that the attorneys general wanted to withdraw from the case, but she did not intend to object to their request.

As part of the motion to withdraw, Herman and Lupton have asked the court for a stay of some pending deadlines to allow the defendants a reasonable amount of time to retain new counsel, and for those attorneys to familiarize themselves with the case and “be in a position to adequately represent their new clients.”

Pinette has retained Graydon Stevens of Kelly Remmel & Zimmerman in Portland to defend her; new counsel has not yet been retained for the CDC, according to the Herman/Lupton motion. According to the motion, the attorneys general anticipate the CDC will have new counsel in place next week.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com