BANGOR, Maine — An Augusta man has sued former Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty and jail employees claiming that he served a 10-day sentence three times because of administrative errors made by the jail administrator and corrections officers.
Sedgewick Armstrong, 64, claims he lost his job of 21 years as a school janitor because of his illegal incarcerations. He is seeking unspecified damages.
The other defendants in the case are Capt. Marsha J. Alexander, jail administrator; Corey J. Goodchild, Amanda L. Carlow and Mathew W. Ryan, all corrections officers who were involved in processing Armstrong into the Kennebec County Jail.
The lawsuit, originally filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, was moved Wednesday to U.S. District Court in Bangor by Waterville attorney Peter Marchesi, who represents the former sheriff and jail employees.
Armstrong reported on Oct. 11, 2013, to the camp in South China, Maine, owned by the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, or Quakers, for an alternative sentencing program for an operating after suspension conviction, the complaint said. He used vacation time from his job to serve his sentence and was released on Oct. 16, 2013.
On March 18, 2014, Alexander signed an affidavit swearing that after an “extensive” search of court and jail records she’d found that Armstrong had not reported to serve his sentence the previous October, according to the complaint. She requested a warrant be issued for his arrest on a failure to appear charge.
Armstrong was arrested on that warrant on June 21, 2014, the complaint said. He was released from jail 11 days later on July 1, 2014, but a new warrant was issued using Alexander’s March 2014 affidavit about six months later on Dec. 30, 2014.
He was arrested again March 25, 2015, and held until April 8, 2015, the lawsuit said. The failure to appear charge eventually was dismissed.
In his answer to the complaint, Marchesi admitted that jail records showed Armstrong was admitted to the Kennebec County Jail on those dates in June 2014 and March 2015 but said there was not enough information to determine if Alexander had attended the alternative sentencing program as he claimed.
Mark Laverdiere of Orono, Armstrong’s attorney, claimed that in addition to losing his job, Armstrong lost 50 pounds because of the stress of his repeated arrests and loss of employment. He also experienced “extreme pain and suffering” during his incarceration because of his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
Armstrong is seeking compensation for unlawful arrest, false imprisonment, negligent supervision of jail staff and violation of the Maine Civil Rights Act.
A trial tentatively was set for March 2017.