BIDDEFORD, Maine — Two men have accused a former Biddeford police officer of sexually abusing them as boys more than a decade ago.
Attorney Walter McKee said Thursday that his firm is conducting a civil investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by a retired Biddeford police officer and the police department.
McKee represents Matthew Lauzon, now of Massachusetts, who in March made public accusations that he was sexually abused as a child by then-Biddeford Police officer Stephen Dodd.
In an email to the Bangor Daily News on Thursday, McKee said he is aware of an ongoing investigation by the attorney general’s office, but could provide no additional details.
In an email to the Bangor Daily News on Thursday, Timothy Feeley, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, wrote, “We cannot comment on any ‘civil investigation’ undertaken and promoted by private legal counsel; nor can we comment on any suggestion that there is a criminal investigation.”
Similarly, Biddeford Police Chief Roger P. Beaupre said in an emailed release Thursday afternoon, “The city of Biddeford cannot confirm or deny that the attorney general’s office has undertaken in the past or currently is conducting a criminal investigation. The city of Biddeford also cannot comment on personnel matters involving current or former employees. Finally, the city of Biddeford will not comment on any private investigations being performed by lawyers engaged by outside parties.”
The Courier newspaper reported in March that Lauzon has filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office and requested an investigation into an officer who has since retired and is now living in Florida. Lauzon told The Courier that he first told the Biddeford Police Department last fall that he was sexually abused by the man nearly 20 years ago.
Another man, Rick Alexander of South Portland, told WMTW-TV, Portland’s ABC affiliate, in an interview aired Thursday that he was first sexually assaulted by the Biddeford officer behind his aunt’s house, in handcuffs. Alexander said he also filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office in 2002.
“We don’t want to interfere in any way with the attorney general’s office’s criminal investigation of Dodd and any others officers of the Biddeford police who have abused children,” McKee wrote in the release. “What is becoming apparent though from recent news stories and based on our own preliminary investigation is that these were not isolated incidents and they occurred over the course of many years and we want to find out how it was all happening without any action being taken to keep Dodd and any others from continually abusing boys for so many years.”