WEST BATH, Maine — After a lengthy hearing on Monday at West Bath District Court, Judge Beth Dobson declined to approve a permanent protection from harassment order requested by the Freeport flag ladies against the son of a Maine man who died when hijackers crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
Portland television station WGME, CBS 13, reported Dobson’s decision shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday.
The three women — Elaine Greene, Carmen Footer and JoAnn Miller — had a temporary protection from harassment order against James Roux III. They testified Monday morning that he had harassed them and made them feel unsafe on more than one occasion.
During testimony Monday afternoon, Roux characterized his confrontations with the three women as free speech, not harassment, according to media reports.
Roux was taken into police custody after disrupting a 9/11 observance on Sept. 11, 2015, in Freeport. The Cumberland County district attorney’s office chose not to pursue charges against him for that incident.
In a Sept. 22 letter published by the Portland Press Herald, Roux described himself as “a pacifist and a patriot,” and he said that he objected to the Sept. 11 ceremony’s “program of military force” and its “exploitation of 9/11 victims, such as my father.”
The flag ladies have stood on the streets of Freeport waving American flags every Tuesday morning since the 2001 attacks.
On Dec. 1, 2015, Roux stood opposite the flag ladies on Main Street with his mother, Liza Moore, and held signs supporting refugees. After that, the two encountered the flag ladies in a nearby coffee shop. Moore and Greene each denied initiating the exchange that followed, but it prompted Greene, Miller and Footer to seek a temporary protection from harassment order against Roux.
The three women went to court Monday in an effort to make that order permanent.
Moore also stood on the street opposite the flag ladies on Dec. 8 and Dec. 15.
“It’s her way to harass us because her son can’t,” Greene said. “This is not an accident. This is not freedom of speech. This is backdoor harassment against us because we have an order of protection against her son.”
Greene later said she supports Moore’s right to free speech and that the harassment order is not directed at her.
In December, Moore said that seeing the flag ladies “picks a scab” for her son.
On Dec. 22, more than 100 supporters showed up to support the flag ladies. Moore and Roux were not present, but a group of local high school students stood across the street with signs supporting immigrants and tolerance.
After the decision, Roux told CBS 13 that he is happy with the judge’s decision to drop the harassment claim.
“I did not harass them, and I do not harass people. I believe in nonviolence. I’m happy with it, and I hope that people in Maine are not scared of me,” Roux said.
Greene said she still fears for her safety.
“It’s all about his freedom of speech, but his freedom of speech, harassing us doesn’t matter that we felt threatened? I had to buy mace and pepper spray and a stun gun because I got concerned. No, no, the system was not served today,” Greene said.
Greene called Roux a bully and said the only way to deal with a bully is to be a bigger bully.
Roux said he plans to find more civil and less threatening ways to get his message across, as Dobson advised him to do.
Information from CBS 13 is included in this report.