Bullied by Police Over a Facebook Post in Maine

The content included within this post was received anonymously via the CopBlock.org Submissions page.

Date of Incident: November 23,2015
Officers Involved: Col. Robert Williams, Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier
Department Involved: Maine State Police
Contact Number: (207) 626-3811

In a clear bullying tactic by Col. Robert Williams of the Maine State Police, I was told to delete a Facebook post or expect criminal charges. The Facebook Post in question was a picture of two men who I thought appeared to have similar features. The post read “Corrupt Maine Trooper Lt. Scott Ireland & corrupt Illinois police officer Lt. Joe Giniewicz. They could be twins @MEStatePolice”. It included pictures of both men. This is just the latest chapter in a nearly five year nightmare.

It all started in 2011 when I came to Maine to do training with a sub-contractor. I obtained video footage of a man committing insurance fraud. When the state police found out about this, they charged me with working in Maine without a valid PI license. After I won in court and Justice Jeffrey Hjelm dismissed the charges before trial, the state police retaliated against me by denying my application for Private Investigator. They also contacted my largest client and told them there was an ‘ongoing investigation’ into me. This caused my client to stop using my services and was an obvious and clear retaliation by Det. David Pelletier and his commander Lt. Scott Ireland.

I could not believe that men who swore an oath to uphold the constitution would be so willing to ignore it. My Constitutional and human rights of due process and presumption of innocence were so clearly violated that even a toddler could see it. So I wrote an article and put together a YouTube video detailing my experience. After publishing the article and video online, I received messages and phone calls from five other PI’s who said they did the same thing to them. Only one was willing to go public with his story, the others feared retaliation by the state police. Based on my experience, they had good reason to fear the state police. I wrote an article about what happened to the others and then more people started coming forward telling of horror stories of treatment by Maine State Police. Not all of the stories were about Det. Pelletier and Lt. Scott Ireland, however enough were for me to reasonably conclude they were ‘bad apples’.

As I started to look more closely into Lt. Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier, I uncovered a connection between Lt. Ireland and a Maine business called Merrills Investigations. The owner of this business, Michael Harrington, was on a private investigation oversight board with Lt. Ireland. I could not believe that a Maine private investigator was the chairperson of an oversight board that regulates Maine private investigators. That is clear conflict of interest! However based on conversations with the other victims, I came to the realization that Lt. Scott Ireland may be filing false charges against private investigators that compete with Merrills Investigations. That is a clear case of government corruption and so I again wrote an article with my findings. The case was made that Lt. Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier were corrupt.

I wrote my findings in an article and posted in online. I felt it was my duty to warn others about these corrupt officers. People contacted me and told me stories about how Lt. Ireland has a short fuse. I heard that Det. Pelletier is often seen at liquor stores. I found videos online of Maine State Police intimidating people and so much more. This only gave me resolve to warn people about these corrupt officers and when I saw the uncanny resemblance between corrupt officer Joe Gliniewicz and corrupt Lt. Scott Ireland, I posted it. Officer Gliniewicz committed suicide this summer and staged it to look like he was shot on the job. After his plot was uncovered, it was learned that he and his family were embezzling money among other things. In some ways Officer Gliniewicz crime was child play compared to what Lt Ireland has done to me and others. For example, the client that I lost due to him was worth over $200,000 in revenue to my business. So where is that revenue going now? I believe it’s all going to Lt. Irelands friend Michael Harrington of Merrills Investigations.

After I wrote the article detailing my findings, I was sent an intimidating letter from a lawyer representing Merrills Investigations and Michael Harrington. It told me to delete my online posts or face a lawsuit. I did not delete anything and posted the letter online. I then wrote an article about receiving the letter and detailed how Merrills Investigation was under investigation by the Maine Department of Labor, however after a meeting between Maine Gov. Paul LePage and Michael Harrington, the investigation ended without explanation. The Maine Department of Labor confirmed this to me in a freedom of Information request. The FOIA request also uncovered a sixteen year relationship between the State of Maine and Merrills Investigation. I also strongly believe the threatening letter was sent at the request of Lt. Scott Ireland.

I contacted the Maine Attorney General Janet Mills to inform her about the constitutional violations by Lt. Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier. I received a response from Brian MacMaster from the AG’s office. He informed me that he was not going to investigate my complaint. I was so frustrated and confused by this, until I learned that Brian MacMaster is friends with Det. Pelletier, Lt. Ireland AND Michael Harrington. In fact Mr. MacMaster and Mr. Harrington have lake houses on the same lake. I told AG Janet Mills about this and asked why my complaint was assigned to someone who is friends with the very officers I was complaining about. I have not received a response.

I filed an internal affairs complaint with Lt. Anna Love of Maine state police. I was trying to get the other victims to come forward to her. They were skeptical that she would be fair. So I asked her to send me a list of all troopers that she investigated and resulted in a criminal charge. I began to become suspicious of her when she refused to answer my question. I have since concluded that she has never charged a trooper with a crime. Her ‘internal investigation’ focused 100% on reinvestigating me, contacting my clients and several lengthy interviews with me. In the second interview it became clear to me that she was on the troopers side. I learned that Lt. Love is the daughter of a State Trooper and is married to a state trooper. That means she grew up idolizing troopers and has no place in the internal investigations department. However she did tell me, while trying to defend Lt Ireland and Det. Pelletier, they contacted my client based on instruction from the AG’s office. Since the AG’s office was not involved in my case when my client was contacted, that was a clear lie. Making Lt Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier dishonest as well as corrupt.

I then asked for my complaint to go before a citizen complaint review committee. They refused this request and informed me there is no such committee in Maine. That means there is absolutely zero citizen oversight of the Maine state police. This may explain why there are corrupt troopers employed there! I then submitted a freedom of information request and was told it would cost hundreds of dollars, would take over 10 months and most pages will be fully redacted. I asked for a copy of my internal affairs investigation as well as all complaints against Lt. Ireland’s department. They flat out refused to give me anything pertaining to the internal affairs investigation. What are they hiding?

Because I posted my story online, I have been contacted by 19 people thus far telling me their stories about corruption at the Maine State Police. Whenever I repost my story more people are warned about the clear constitutional and civil violations by Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier. I had an exchange in the comment section of one of my post’s where a man told me to ‘let it go’. My response; “I wish I could, but people need to know about this bad apple officer and be warned! How many more victims will it take before something happens? Lt. Scott Ireland is corrupt and evil and he is a ‘powder keg’ who remains a danger to the public. If I ‘let it go’ and he kills someone, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

Yesterday I received a ‘Notice’ and was told to delete my post about Lt. Scott Ireland or I will be charged with harassment under Maine law. This was clearly meant to be a threatening letter and constitutes a clear violation of First Amendment Constitutional rights and my human rights under Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Several months ago I received an email telling me the Maine state police followed me on twitter. I have learned they are monitoring my Facebook account. They are clearly not happy that I have exposed a few of their troopers. My only intent in telling my story and posting this online, is to warn others about the corruption at Maine state police. I do not believe that all police are bad, in fact I think the majority do an amazing job under very difficult circumstances. However the few bad apples in Maine appear to be infecting their chief, Col. Robert Williams. How many more victims need to come forward before something is done?

Note: If I am killed, Lt. Scott Ireland and or Det. David Pelletier were most likely involved.

 

Source Article from http://www.copblock.org/147888/bullied-by-police-over-facebook-post-maine/

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