Southwest Harbor has hired a former Machias police officer who was accused a decade ago of assaulting and groping women during arrests and who sued his former employer for wrongful termination.
Richard Strout is the newest police officer with the Southwest Harbor Police Department, the department said Tuesday on its Facebook page. The post said Strout left law enforcement 12 years ago but is returning to a “profession he loves.”
Southwest Harbor Police Chief John Hall said Wednesday that Strout was open from the very beginning about his work history in Machias. Hall said he was aware, before he subjected Strout to background checks and exams, that Strout had been fired in Machias and then had sued the town, and that he had been sued by women he had arrested.
“He told all of this to me before he handed me an application,” Hall said. “I feel that Officer Strout is not the person that he was accused of being 10 years ago.”
Strout was let go by the town of Machias in 2011 after the town required him to take a psychological exam. The psychologist who conducted the exam later told Machias officials that Strout could not be certified “as being fit for duty for typical, armed, minimally supervised law enforcement work,” according to federal court documents.
He filed a federal lawsuit against Machias the following year and later received a $50,000 settlement from the town.
The following year Strout was sued, along with other Machias officials, in three separate federal lawsuits filed by different women who accused him of assaulting and inappropriately touching them while placing them under arrest.
All three lawsuits filed by the women were dismissed in 2014 — two by agreement with the women involved and one because the plaintiff could not find a new attorney and stopped communicating with court officials. It is not clear if the two women who agreed to dismissals received any monetary settlement with the town.
In its Facebook post, the Southwest Harbor Police Department acknowledged the public controversy surrounding Strout’s prior employment. Strout “overcame the negativity” after he settled his lawsuit against his former employer, Southwest Harbor officials wrote.
“To ensure the integrity of our profession with all new hires an exhaustive background check, along with a polygraph and psychological [test] were conducted,” the post said. “The results cleared his name and confirmed that we had found an excellent officer.”
Hall said he also heard directly from Machias residents and business owners who spoke highly of Strout and recommended him for the job.
Strout had to get recertified by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy before he was hired in Southwest Harbor.
“I feel he did very well,” Hall said. “There was a falling out in Machias between Richard, the chief and the town. It’s water under the bridge.”
Dwelley and Chris Loughlin, Machias’ town manager at the time, said in federal court documents that they had concerns about Strout’s mental health and required Strout to undergo a psychological exam to determine whether he was fit for duty.
The psychologist who performed the exam later reported to town officials that he did not think Strout was fit for the type of one-officer patrol shifts that are typical for many small-town police departments, according to court documents. Strout had a right to get a second opinion but never did so and, because of the psychologist’s report, was terminated.