Maine’s public safety chief refused to answer scant questions from lawmakers on Tuesday about the state police’s internal review of a chaotic 2024 arrest in which a trooper repeatedly punched a handcuffed man in the face.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschiuck, and the state police’s No. 2, Lt. Col. Brian Scott, went before the Legislature’s criminal justice and public safety committee to brief members on the agency’s use of force and complaint review policies.
Lawmakers sought more information about the topic after it repeatedly made headlines this past fall, including a pair of excessive force lawsuits and a multi-part investigation by the Maine Monitor and Bangor Daily News into the violent arrest of the handcuffed man, Justin Savage.
Yet legislators almost entirely shied away from asking about those cases on Tuesday, and Sauschuck shut down questions the only time a lawmaker did. The singular exchange showcased how difficult it might be for lawmakers to extract more detailed information about specific cases and that there may not be a large appetite from lawmakers to do so.
“We are not going to discuss any active litigation, that case or any case,” Sauschuck said in response to a question from Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill. “We are here to discuss policy and process. I appreciate the question but we won’t be able to discuss that at all.”
Milliken, who was charged with illegal campaigning last year in a case that was later dropped by prosecutors, had asked whether it was typical for the state police to promote an officer while he was still under investigation for a complaint of serious misconduct.
The agency did not discipline any troopers and promoted the one who punched Savage in the face before internal affairs had finished investigating a complaint about the ordeal. Policing experts called the force used against Savage excessive.
Savage, of Limerick, sued the state police over the events and aftermath of his 2024 arrest, much of which was caught on camera. He has also alleged the agency defamed him in a misleading press release about the episode.
Video of Savage’s arrest, which was published by the Monitor/BDN, prompted policing experts to question the state police’s record of clearing troopers accused of excessive force. Between 2015 and 2024, the agency received 33 such complaints and did not substantiate any of them.
In October, a Chelsea woman filed a second excessive force lawsuit after a trooper allegedly bodyslammed her during an arrest that took place the same month as Savage’s. Her lawsuit accused the agency of creating “a culture of tacit approval of excessive force” and cited the agency’s pristine record of clearing officers.
It also alleged that the state police failed to properly supervise that trooper, whose conduct in an earlier case prompted the Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney to send the agency a letter criticizing his competence and credibility. She has since said she considers the matter resolved.
Saushcuck repeated to a reporter after the meeting that the agency’s leadership would not discuss anything related to cases connected to an ongoing lawsuit and that he and Scott had been invited to the State House to discuss policy.
Indeed, Rep. Tavis Hasenfus, D-Readfield, a committee co-chair, said before the briefing that it would stick to a general policy overview, and he described the panel’s oversight role as crafting policies to prevent future harm, not litigating past cases.
One Republican on the panel previously said the courts are the best forum to determine if any wrongdoing occurred. Sen. Pinny Beebe-Center of Rockland, who co-chairs the committee, had been unfamiliar with the details of the Savage case until Tuesday morning, she said in an interview.
Just because Tuesday’s discussion did not touch on those broader culture allegations doesn’t mean the topic won’t come up again. Milliken told a reporter after the hearing that she met with Savage to discuss police oversight issues before Tuesday’s briefing.
“I think we need to put some bills in. I’m not sure what those will be yet but I do think there are certainly some things falling through the cracks there in terms of oversight and the ability to effectively [provide] oversight of themselves,” she said.