Maine’s public safety chief will take questions from lawmakers Tuesday following two excessive force lawsuits against the state police this fall, one of them related to the beating of a handcuffed man that was also the subject of a Maine Monitor/Bangor Daily News investigation.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck will brief the Legislature’s criminal justice committee after several lawmakers expressed interest in learning more about the state police’s policies for using and investigating instances of physical force, said Rep. Tavis Hasenfus, D-Readfield, who co-chairs the committee.
The hearing could be the first time a state police leader faces questions about its handling of past force cases since they made headlines last year, although Hasenfus cautioned that pending lawsuits would make it unlikely for the discussion to feature detailed questions and answers.
“The hearing is not intended to be about a specific incident but about the process as a whole, if there are things being done that should be changed and ways to improve the process,” he said.
In September, the Monitor/BDN published a multi-part investigation into the violent arrest of Justin Savage of Limerick, who was punched in the face by a state trooper while he lay handcuffed in his driveway. Police experts who reviewed dashcam footage of the incident criticized the troopers involved in his arrest for using excessive force and raised other concerns about their conduct that night.
State police leaders cleared the officers of any wrongdoing and released a misleading press release about the March 2024 episode. The agency also failed to investigate a complaint as possible “serious misconduct” until a lawsuit was threatened and promoted the officer who punched Savage in the face before the internal investigation concluded.
The complaint was one of 33 excessive force complaints the agency received over the previous decade, none of which were sustained. Savage, who was eventually cleared of all criminal charges stemming from the episode, sued the agency in September.
In October, a Chelsea woman filed a second excessive force lawsuit against state police, claiming a trooper body slammed her during an arrest that also took place in March 2024. Earlier that winter, the trooper’s aggressive conduct in a different case prompted the county’s district attorney to criticize his competence and credibility in a letter to the state police. (The trooper was not disciplined and the district attorney, Maeghan Maloney, has since called the matter resolved.)
Publicity around the two lawsuits were among the reasons lawmakers wanted a chance to question Sauschuck in public, Hasenfus said Friday. But the goal of the briefing is to identify whether lawmakers should impose any changes in policy changes, not to not determine whether the state police committed any past wrongdoing, he said.
After Savage sued the state police and the video of his beating circulated online, lawmakers did not rush to judgment about what they saw and indicated they wanted to learn more. Some said the courts were the best forum to identify if wrongdoing occurred.
“I think it’s really hard to tell without being there,” Rep. Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, said of the video of Savage’s arrest on Friday. “I don’t have a judgment. I think we need to wait for the court case.”
Other lawmakers plan to ask questions about the Savage case and see it as an opportunity for a larger conversation around police oversight.
“It’s something I’m paying attention to, and it’s worth the state’s attention,” said Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill.
Tuesday’s briefing was originally supposed to include a formal update about Sauchuck’s surprise December announcement to absorb the Capitol Police into the state police. The topic is no longer a formal agenda item but could still prompt questions from lawmakers.
Lawmakers will also hear from the Department of Corrections about a series of recent escapes from the state’s only youth prison, Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland. There were two break-outs last summer and a third the previous year.