ELLSWORTH, Maine — Incidents of domestic violence have caused former Ellsworth City Councilor Michael Boucher to resign from the council and leave the city, according to court documents.
Boucher tendered his resignation effective Dec. 1 at a meeting in November. In his resignation letter, he said he had made the decision to leave Ellsworth, with his young daughter, and move to western Maine.
In the letter, Boucher said he felt compelled to leave the council because of repeated incidents of domestic abuse at the hands of his wife, Cynthia Boucher.
According to an affidavit filed by Ellsworth Police Officer Amie Torrey, Boucher was treated at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital on Aug. 8 after his wife had thrown a spatula at him, striking him in the face. Torrey met with Michael Boucher at the hospital, where she saw two lacerations on the bridge of his nose. He told her that he was concerned his nose was broken.
Cynthia Boucher pleaded no contest in November to charges that she had assaulted her husband back in August. In a plea agreement, a charge of domestic-violence assault was dropped to regular assault. She also was found guilty of violation of bail conditions stemming from a previous domestic violence incident against Boucher that took place in Washington County.
Boucher was sentenced to 30 days in jail with all but 72 hours suspended, a $300 fine, and psychological and anger management treatment. She began her jail sentence Friday, Dec. 14, and was released on Monday. She also is prohibited from contacting Michael Boucher except through email, text message or a third-party.
Both phone numbers on file at City Hall for Michael Boucher have been disconnected, and attempts to reach him have been unsuccessful. Since resigning, he has taken a job as a part-time police officer in western Maine. Until recently, Boucher was a part-time officer in Winter Harbor.
The move was in his daughter’s “best interest, in order to remove her from the chaos and protect her more effectively,” Boucher said in his letter. He also wrote that he had recently been granted custody of his child.
Since his resignation wasn’t immediate, councilors could not consider it until its regular meeting on Dec. 17. There, they decided to leave his seat vacant until the next election in June.
City rules don’t necessitate a special election unless an elected position becomes vacant more than 180 days before the next election, according to City Clerk Heidi Grindle. Monday’s meeting was 177 days before the regular June election.
Whoever succeeds Boucher next summer will serve out the remainder of the resigned councilor’s term, set to end in November 2013.
Boucher’s brother, Matthew Boucher, also left a city council before his term was up this year. Boucher moved to New Hampshire for a job promotion and had not attended a council meeting for two months. The remaining councilors voted to declare his seat absent because of “absence and ineligibility,” on Aug. 20.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 1-866-834-4357, TTY 1-800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
I’ll bet Santa flies right by her place.
No spatula for her this year.
Okay guys…I sense that you would not make these types of comments if the abuser in this case was a man. Please show some respect for this male victim that had the courage to speak up about the violence. It took a lot of guts for him to report. Abused men are much less likely to report than women due to the stigma (like these types of comments btw). More than likely he did so in order to protect his child. Most victims will put up with a lot of abuse directed at them and only do something about it when they become concerned for their children’s safety. http://www.dahmw.org
There’s three sides to every story… The Police always look out for one of their own
She might not be innocent Mario, but he’s no angel…
5 foot 4 & 1/2 inches of domestic violence gone bad…..such a shame for a child to lose mom in this fashion…..
Tried to get a hold of the wife yet?
Really BDN? no respect for privacy ever…sad.
Anyone take a close look at her mug shot? Her finger isn’t missing…it’s at full mast. Kind of shows her whole attitude doesn’t it? I’m sure he isn’t an angel either but that mug shot giving the #1 salute doesn’t help her case with me
She is just sayin’… she got the last laugh…
Very observant of you. I missed that. Thanks.
Closer to half mast really but it could still be a lil gesture. Maybe the officer shooting the mug told he to tuck it in a bit.
“Both phone numbers on file at City Hall for Michael Boucher have been
disconnected, and attempts to reach him have been unsuccessful.”
Domestic violence victims have a right to privacy BDN, did you forget that????
I couldn’t have said that better myself! It’s Insanity!
Then why are you interested in the story????
What are you trying to say, I don’t understand your point. I reminded the BDN of a victims right to privacy.
The Bangor Daily News is a slimy rag. Grabbing at anything to make a story and they could care less about anyone’ s right to privacy. Heck, they’d send little Nic McCrea out to measure the size of someone’s bowel movement if they think they could sell a few papers with some ridiculous headline announcing the the hot scoop.
So what did they do to you?
Not to mention they specified what his new job was and narrowed down the area.Nice double standard as usual.
She’s still given three options to contact him.WHY?Any communication should be done through a court appointed third party ONLY at least in the near term.
The court doesn’t see a mother/woman as the same threat as they do a father/man. The contact probably has to do with child visitation. Would a male who was arrested for domestic violence assault and then took a plea to a lesser charge AND then violated his bail conditions be allowed the same latitude when it comes to child visitation? Not if Kellet was involved that’s for sure!
Oh, that poor abused woman, we should start a support fund for her, we all know it’s HIS fault
Matthew Boucher is also a member of the Christian Civic League of Maine’s Board of Directors (http://capitolincite.bangordailynews.com/2011/11/05/faith-and-the-race-for-maines-house-district-24-seat/), or at least was last year.
And?
Devout evangelical Baptists, don’tcha know.
Well THAT explains it.
Gay marriage passing must have destroyed his state of holy matrimony.
This article is about Michael Boucher. Matthew Boucher is his brother.
He is a police officer and his 5 foot wife is kicking the crap out of him? I thought Maine’s finest were trained in controlling situations and self defense?.
He was smart enough to not touch her otherwise it would have been he did/she did and he did it first. The courts would have sided with the female side of the story and he would have spent a lot more time than 72 hours in jail.
Not to mention if he were to get busted for domestic violence, there goes his right to carry a firearm.
Smart move on the victims part to step back.
I was in a similar situation a couples years ago.
My “reaction” was to double up my fist and
let one fly from way down cellar…..
…but my “response” was to pick my glasses up off the floor
and head for the door.
Ironic part: she was a womans advocate/domestic violence
helpline associate.
It tells me that he’s a gentleman and doesn’t believe in hitting or doing anything that could hurt a woman. Too bad more of our youth didn’t feel the same way
You know how our youth feel?
I read the paper
They gave her too short a sentence. If this state means what it keeps saying about cracking down on DV then the courts need to tighten up
I agree with you. Violence should be treated more seriously and appropriately. How about a violent offender serving a full sentence with no parole, no reduced sentence, no appeal, no internet, no college courses, no phone calls. How about treating a criminal like a criminal? How bout that for once? When it comes to domestic violence it is clearly apparent that our ‘authorities’ do not take it seriously enough. They sure do like to talk though….. how about walking the walk instead of talking the talk…. just today there is also an article about a domestic violence case and the woman was stabbed multiple times in the neck. He got 6 years. 6 frickin years!! Disgusting!
Did he take a plea? Plea deals are offered all the time in an effort to reduce court costs etc. Perhaps it would be best to remove plea deals as bargaining chips for certain types of crime.
He’s lucky she didn’t grab a more lethal weapon. Remember that woman last year who tortured her husband while he was in the bathtub before murdering him.
Horrible case….That poor male victim suffered unspeakable acts of sexual and physical violence…I pray that she drugged him enough (which it would seem she did given the severity of his injuries and what appeared to be his lack of ability to defend himself) so that he didn’t feel too much pain. Interesting how we heard little about that case after she plead not guilty and claimed self defense. What was really odd to me is that she was given not ONE but TWO free attorney’s for her defense What’s up with that? I never heard of such a thing.
Really don’t think you’ll get by with that comment, do ya?
2 hours and counting.
Amazing, must be a lot of folks out shopping… =)
I say kudos to him for not hitting back. I say kudos to him for reporting it. Domestic violence against men happens more often that is reported, and should not be tolerated. I give the same support to a man as i do a woman. (and i am a woman.) Some of the comments are not so appropriate that way and seem to indicate that he is a police officer, she is small, so therefore he knows how to play the system. Maybe he does. Maybe he doesnt. Or maybe he knows better than someone else might that he should not retaliate physically and he should leave. He did what victims of domestic violence are encouraged to do….. call the police. And leave. Get away. And I for one applaud him for doing so. Men face the stigma represented in some of these comments, which is why it is not reported as often, they often feel no one will believe them. So, if you are one of the individuals who made one of those comments, perhaps you should educate yourself on the subject of domestic abuse and how your comments contribute to the problem.
Nice comment Snady! I am a woman also and totally agree. The public needs to be more educated on the stigma’s and prejudices that male victims of domestic violence face. We try to do what we can to educate and help at our all volunteer non profit based here in Maine (www.dahmw.org) but there are so many forces against our getting the message out. LOL…I know that sounds a little paranoid but, in a nutshell, the fact is that fear of change and of upending the status quo has kept our domestic violence victim’s services (and abusers services) stuck in the 1980’s. For example, the abuser (Boucher) was sentenced to a psych. assessment and anger management. If she were a he, “he” would have been sentenced to a batterers intervention program (BIP)…which is WAY different from “anger mgt,” and most likely not sentenced to have a psych. eval because of the unwritten rule that all men who perpetrate domestic violence do so out of choice and their patriarchal need to dominate and control woman, not because of any type of mental illness. Hats off to you Snady! Fortunately, some people are starting to recognize that domestic violence goes both ways…a man can be the abuser as well as a woman.
This is the same newspaper that reported a wolf pitbull mix attacked a small child the other day,and it turned out to another kind of dog.Id wait to get all of the facts before you start getting out the tar and feathers..
Ellsworth seems to be Craziness Central lately……
Plea agreement with a prior domestic assault conviction? No wonder domestic abusers typically don’t pay attention to any consequences for their actions.
Lock her up.
PIZZA AGAIN?!?!?!?!?
Where’s the remote !!??
“In a plea agreement, a charge of domestic-violence assault was dropped to regular assault.”
This is how men hating prosecutor Mary Kellett and Governor LePage get away with targeting men for abuse and prosecution…women are almost never charged and when they are they are kept out of statistical data by classifying them OUT of Domestic Violence assault and homicide data.
Non-biased studies show again and again that women are MORE violent than men. The FRAUD based Domestic Violence Industry fudges the numbers to blames only men to deprive them of due process and parenthood, deprive them of legal protection, and give abusive women a license to abuse men and the system.
The lie based DV Industry now controls what the police can do and controls how the media reports domestic violence. This male victim had the courage to report
the incident, and Bangor Daily News publishes HIS photograph front and center.
People need to take a real hard look at WHO is running the Maine DV Industry and what their real agenda is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os4XHD5VKBw
Remember LePage’s yapping about how he was going to fix the system?That worked well just like every other failure of his.
IMHO, “fixing the system,” as it relates to dv in the politician’s and the dv advocates minds is ending violence against women…not ending domestic violence for all victims. LePage was abused as a child by a man and the traditional dv advocates focus is on men’s violence against women so they are only concerned with fixing half the system.
There’s a dirty little secret out there that men and women don’t want to talk about and that is there is a lot of violence against men by woman. For some reason it’s acceptable for women the slap. punch and kick men, but if a man touches a women the same way she has a shelter to go to and society is right by her side. If a man reports abuse he’s considered less than a man. Glad this man put his child before his crazy wife, his job and his pride. He may have saved his and his child’s life.
Very true.I had a good friend whose brother barely escaped with his life.The woman was later convicted of ABDW on another guy yet never served a day.No surprise.
I would say be careful what you teach and how you treat people sooner or later it all comes back around, 10- fold.
This is what feminists call “equality”. Men are brutally punished for every minor offence, and women are never accountable for anything.
Good for him for having the guts to admit what was going on in his personal life, and for doing what was necessary to get his daughter and himself to a safer and saner life. If only more DV victims would take the same path…
There is no license to hit for men or women.
That is what a radical feminist office of prosecutor Mary Kellett and Carletta Bassano does. They refused to apply “domestic violence” laws and refused to protect this male victim. He was in Kellet’s district and even being a City Counselor didn’t help and he was forced to flea Ellsworth for his and his child’s safety.
This is the same DA office that prosecuted a man TWICE for “domestic violence assault” because his wife claimed during their custody battle that he splashed her with water. The man had no record but this DA office broke rules to try him twice and convict him of “domestic violence assault”. They jailed him for 21 days! So splashing water is “domestic violence” but sending a man to the hospital bleeding is not domestic violence?
That DA office targets men and boys but protects violent females.
Wonder is anyone at the County Commissioners or the Governor’s office has seen this website: http://fillerfund.com/
Kellett’s office is a disgusting example of radical feminist abuse of public office to persue a vendetta against men, boys, and fathers. Of course, when the perpetrators are female, even overwhelming evidence of guilt will not motivate these bigots to take action.
The both look like they have some deep seeded issues.
“deep-seated”, but I like your version, too
I’m surprised he wasn’t the one prosecuted considering the disgraceful behavior of Maine’s prosecuting attorney’s.
“In a plea agreement, a charge of domestic-violence assault was dropped to regular assault. She also was found guilty of violation of bail conditions stemming from a previous domestic violence incident against Boucher that took place in Washington County.”
Wtf? A repeat offender …. in violation of terms from the prior …. is then provided a plea deal? Flip the script in this saga and the gentleman wouldn’t be afforded a plea agreement., The prosecutor would throw the book at at the bridge of his nose.
It is staggering to think that sexism of this magnitude is tolerated in this day and age.
Well put Pacman33.
It is a numbers game. The feminists in charge of the domestic violence industry work very hard to prevent guilty verdicts to female perpetrators, because they only receive VAWA kick backs when they throw the book at men.
More importantly, note that the plea deal didn’t include “domestic violence”, so won’t figure in statistics on domestic violence. Everybody wins apart from the victim.
I knew Mike when he was a police officer in Machias and he was very fair and professional. He was also a very proud father. Best of luck to you and your daughter in the future.
Throwing a spatula is hardly a dangerous weapon, just an (un) lucky shot. If it wasn’t a repeat offense, I would say this was making a mountain out of a molehill…
Bet you wouldn’t say that if the man had thrown the spatula at the wife.
I dont see the need for text messaging or email………the only communication should be through a 3rd party.Just fueling the fire.
What kind of headline is that for a story that describes a situation in which an alleged domestic violence assault (an prior convicted assault) were perpetrated against a city councilor/spouse? “Wife’s violent outburst prompts….” She didn’t yell at him, she physically assaulted him. That’s domestic violence assault not a “violent outburst.” The word “prompts” makes it sound like her “violent outburst” was his cue to leave instead of his urgent need to leave for his and possibly their child’s safety..
I suspect that had the councilor been a woman the headline would have been, “Husband’s domestic assault forces Ellsworth City councilwoman to resign, flee town” What a difference a few well placed words make.
what
I did wasn’t right or just. I regret what happen but I have paid for the
crime. Michael did not resign in fear or flee. He resigned to pursue
his career as a young police officer. Our daughter lives with me. She
has been to western Maine twice in past
three months. He gets her when he has the time. I see this article
having no reason to be published. I am nine months pregnant with our son
and don’t need more stress. I have done this pregnancy alone and Michael
taking no knowledge we are having a second child. There is always two
sides of things and there is reports, also witnesses there has been
abuse on both ends of our parties. I am not making excuses but there is
no need for this to be a article. I am trying to be a mom and move on.
Just as Michael is with his career not for fear. He resigned to pursue a
career not to escape the fear with our daughter.