DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A former chairman of the Piscataquis County Democratic Party has sued the county’s Democratic Executive Committee to recover $8,260.62 in loans and services he said he provided to the party.
A three-count lawsuit filed in April 2009 by Julius L. Erdo III of Willimantic against the executive committee of Donald Crossman, Willis Higgins, Richard Johnson, Theresa Mudgett, Patsy Fortier, Sylvia Johnson and Sharon Jones was heard Monday by Justice William Anderson in Piscataquis County Superior Court.
Anderson also heard a counterclaim filed by the Piscataquis County Democratic Executive Committee against Erdo for harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. At the trial’s conclusion, Anderson said, he will render a written decision but gave no specific date when that might occur.
Erdo, who since has left the Democratic Party and says he is an independent, claims that members of the executive committee in 2006 had verbally approved the work he did, including construction of a podium for an open house at the committee’s headquarters and renovations to the headquarters. He also said the committee members had verbally approved the purchases he made, which included advertisements and flags. He also claimed he made two $500 cash loans to the committee that never were repaid.
“After five years, I still haven’t received a penny,” Erdo, a construction engineer, said Monday in the courtroom. “I just want to get back the money I put in.”
Higgins, who was named in the civil suit and who served as counsel for the defendants, said the purchases and services never were authorized by vote of the committee as stipulated by the bylaws.
The defendants said they first raised an alarm with Erdo when they were billed $454 for American flags and bunting he had purchased. The flags were the best that could be purchased, they said, and were not what a “hand-to-mouth” organization would buy.
“We do not contest that he did the work; we do contest that there was any obligation to pay for it,” Higgins told Anderson. After receiving Erdo’s bill, Higgins said, the executive committee told Erdo it had to abide by the bylaws but agreed to review the bills he had incurred without prior vote, to see whether they were proper.
“At that point Mr. Erdo went rogue” and used abusive language, Higgins said in his closing argument. “His conduct has been outrageous.” The committee ultimately petitioned to impeach Erdo, but he resigned before that action was carried out, according to Higgins.
Erdo told Anderson that he kept meticulous notes of discussions and meetings in a daily journal he carried. From those notes, he asked the defendants whether they recalled specific discussions regarding the purchases he had made and the work he had done. The defendants denied they ever authorized the work and said the bylaws prevented them from taking such actions.
In his testimony, Erdo said the county committee hadn’t contested the bill, and in fact had submitted the bill to the state Democratic Party for reimbursement. When the state committee refused to pay, the county committee then tried to negotiate with him, but nothing came of it, Erdo claimed.
Erdo also questioned the two cash loans he had given to the committee and noted a discrepancy in the committee’s report that was filed with the Maine Democratic Party’s Ethics Committee. He said a loan repayment of $492.22 was listed, but he questioned where the remaining $507.78 was listed.
Anderson was told by the Piscataquis County Democratic Party’s treasurer, Patsy Fortier, that the loan repayment listed on the report referred to something else because Erdo had given the money to the committee as a donation.