FREEPORT, Maine — A 57-year-old Freeport woman who was handcuffed and arrested during an August 2015 traffic stop has been found not guilty of two traffic violations resulting from the incident.
Three related criminal charges — including assault — also were dismissed by the Cumberland County district attorney’s office.
Bonnie Brady Davenport has filed a citizen’s complaint to the town of Freeport, alleging unnecessarily aggressive behavior by officers and a failure to preserve evidence by former Police Chief Gerald Schofield and Lt. Susan Nourse, who is currently the acting chief and one of two finalists for the chief’s position.
“This is a lady who is a grandmother of two with no criminal history whatsoever, not even a speeding ticket, being charged with a handful of alleged crimes and traffic violations from a poorly-managed tow site,” Davenport’s attorney, Devin Deane, said Thursday.
Davenport was arrested the afternoon of Aug. 27 on Torrey Hill Range Road, not far from a wrecker that was towing a car on Bartol Island Road.
Nourse told the Bangor Daily News the following day that Davenport refused to stop for an officer who was directing traffic around the wrecker, and then sped from the area, squealing her tires. Nourse said that when the officer stopped Davenport, she opened her car door and hit the officer. She then allegedly refused to submit to arrest and was handcuffed and taken to the police station before being released on $500 cash bail.
But Davenport fought the charges in District Court and Superior Court.
In a May 25 email to The Bangor Daily News, Davenport wrote that she has lived in Freeport her entire life and has “no criminal history whatsoever, not even a traffic ticket.” She called the allegations by police in the August 2015 story “total misrepresentations” and “baseless.”
“You can imagine the questions and concerns I received from friends and neighbors after they have read this article,” she said. “It has not been a pleasant experience for me.”
At a March 17 trial in West Bath District Court, Judge Joseph Field found that Davenport had not committed either of the two civil violations, imprudent speed and unnecessary brake or acceleration noise, according to court documents.
On May 9, former Cumberland County Assistant District Attorney Michael Madigan dismissed criminal charges of assault, refusing to submit to arrest and failing to obey a traffic officer’s directions due to “prosecutorial discretion,” according to court documents.
Madigan is no longer with the district attorney’s office, and a call to that office on Thursday was not returned.
Nourse did not return phone calls on Thursday, but Town Manager Peter Joseph said in an email, “The town is aware of Ms. Davenport’s concerns. As this is a personnel matter, the town will not be commenting at this time.”
Deane said the Police Department failed to preserve audio and video recordings made in the booking room during the arrest.
“I made a big fuss about that,” he said. “They had no good reason why they didn’t preserve that.”
Deane said Davenport filed a citizen complaint against Freeport police officers Nathan Leger, Jason Bartlett and Keith Norris, as well as with Schofield and Nourse.
“She feels she was treated wrongly, and she has taken it up with the town internally,” Deane said. “Starting from the encounter … they were pulling a car out of a ditch, and no one was directing traffic, and she gets waved through and then gets stopped by an officer. Then he got very agitated when she got out her purse, and then there are three officers there, and then they handcuffed her and took her away. … This is a small, slight woman, and she was handcuffed very forcefully, taken down to the station and chained to a wall and in handcuffs for several hours.
“She said, ‘I’ve never had a police encounter, but this is awful, and I hope it never happens with anyone else … This is not the way anybody should be treated in our town, or any town.’”