A Houlton man is suing the town for the third time over claims that officials have not released public data from surveillance cameras that were removed earlier this year.
Craig Harriman filed suit Friday in Aroostook County Superior Court, after the town gave no lawful reason for failing to produce data he had requested multiple times.
It’s the latest development in a case that appeared headed for resolution in October, when the town agreed to remove the cameras. Harriman has issued multiple Freedom of Access Act requests and two previous court filings, trying to discover how the town purchased and used its facial recognition video surveillance system that violated Maine surveillance law.
His most recent 12-month attempt to unearth emails regarding the surveillance camera decision-makers has failed, despite more than a dozen written and in-person FOAA queries.
Records being withheld without lawful exemption demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance, Harriman said in his current court filing.
This is not the first time the town has been accused of violating the state’s FOAA law. Houlton depleted its legal budget in 2025 handling Freedom of Access Act lawsuits filed by residents, former Town Manager Cameron Clark, who was later dismissed in December following his September arrest, said at the time.
This is Harriman’s third Rule 80B appeal, which is a Superior Court filing to challenge actions taken by government agencies. Each time he sought to enforce his right to inspect government records under Maine law.
Houlton resident Mark Lipscombe also filed a Rule 80B appeal last year related to documents he never received from his repeated FOAA requests about a police interaction with his minor child.
“Rather than conducting the diligent search required by FOAA, defendants appear to have cherry-picked certain documents while remaining silent on numerous categories of requested records,” Lipscombe said in the court documents.
In 2025, Lipscombe told the Town Council that filing a lawsuit was not his choice, but after exhausting every reasonable channel, he was forced to seek legal relief.
The court ruled in February that the Houlton Police Department had to release the body camera footage Lipscombe had requested.
In Harriman’s Friday court filing, he said the withheld records matter because they document what Houlton Police Chief Tim DeLuca knew about the surveillance project in 2021.
DeLuca, in February 2025, testified under oath that it was not a police department effort and that he had no idea about the project or its technical aspects, according to court documents.
“I am not asking the court to retry that testimony. I am asking for the public records that show who was in the decision-making process to spend taxpayer money on a camera system with facial-recognition features after Maine outlawed that technology,” Harriman said in his filing.
Clark gave Harriman an unofficial 22-page PDF last September that contained 2021 planning and installation communications and correspondence regarding the town’s surveillance cameras between DeLuca, former Town Manager Marian Anderson and former town information technology staffer Scott Rosignol.
The emails “demonstrated that Chief DeLuca was addressed and or copied on communications concerning the planning and acquisition of the surveillance system from the outset,” the documents state.
Harriman submitted a formal FOAA request to DeLuca on Oct. 8, copied to the town clerk and town manager, seeking all electronic communications between DeLuca and Rossignol concerning town surveillance cameras and school cameras throughout 2021.
On Oct. 23, the town gave Harriman some of the emails, but when he compared them to the packet he obtained from Clark, several were missing, he said.
Omissions included correspondence that specifically referenced setting up times for Verkada camera demonstrations, details specifically citing facial recognition technology and notes directed specifically to DeLuca that said, “Chief DeLuca, I think that you will be excited to hear about the features it has for identifying individuals.”
Harriman again wrote to DeLuca to request all the correspondence, noting that some documents were missing.
In the ensuing months, the town claimed it had given Harriman all the documents. Harriman disagreed, and repeatedly wrote to DeLuca and Interim Town Manager Nancy Ketch requesting the missing documents, Friday’s filing stated. He received none.
Harriman attended several Town Council meetings to express frustration and request the missing documents. He shared his FOAA requests and town response with each councilor.
Ketch told Harriman in an Aug. 26 email that he had received all the documents related to his request.
“I am sorry if some items you previously received from the first distribution were not included in the second distribution,” she wrote. “As I previously stated, all records were reviewed internally and in good faith to obtain the requested documents. Any missing documents provided from the second request were inadvertent. Again, you have received all documents from the Town, so the request was fulfilled.”
Harriman is asking the court to declare that Houlton violated the Maine Freedom of Access Act and order the immediate production of all the remaining records he asked for.
If any are withheld, he is asking the court to order the town to explain why in writing, as required by Maine law. He also wants the town to confirm in writing that they completed a thorough search of DeLuca’s email account, relevant town and police servers and archives related to the documents he requested.
