A former part-time police officer is suing the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, saying he was wrongfully terminated from the program after he was pepper sprayed during a training and then allegedly groped a female cadet.
David Peters, of Lincoln, started working part-time as a police officer in 2007. In August 2024 he started the Basic Law Enforcement Training Program to become licensed as a full-time officer with the East Millinocket Police Department, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor.
During a training exercise, Peters allegedly groped a female cadet. Within days Peters was suspended from the training program and was dismissed from the East Millinocket department.
Peters alleges his 14th Amendment rights, ensuring equal protection, were violated, and that he suffered intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation from the groping allegations. He is suing the academy, its board of trustees, 10 Maine officials — including employees of the academy — and 10 people listed under “John and Jane Does.”
He asked a judge to expunge the finding that he engaged in “physical sexual harassment” from his academy record, order his law enforcement certifications reinstated and award monetary damages for his lost wages, the lawsuit said.
On Oct. 29, 2024, Peters participated in training where he was sprayed with oleoresin capsicum, commonly known as pepper spray, and then had to handcuff and search a female cadet, the lawsuit said.
Peters was supposed to use the phrase “spread your feet,” instead of “spread your legs,” to avoid suggestive language and was supposed to avoid touching bare skin, the lawsuit said. The cadet was wearing shorts.
The lawsuit claims the training did not have “adequate safeguards” to help with the impairment a cadet would have after being pepper sprayed.
The cadet accused Peters of groping her, saying in a complaint “Peters ‘dragged his hands up [her] legs,’ that he ‘grabbed [her] breasts and linger[ed],’ and that his hands moved to her ‘groin and private area’ and ‘buttocks’ while an instructor twice told him he was searching a female,” the lawsuit said.
Multiple other cadets before Peters had handcuffed and searched her “with no issues,” she wrote in her complaint, according to the lawsuit.
She initially told classmates the contact was “incidental” but reported it a day later after reflection, the lawsuit said. The complaint was sent to Maine State Police for a criminal investigation, the lawsuit said.
Maine State Police investigated the potential of sexual assault or misdemeanor assault. The district attorney’s office did not pursue criminal charges against Peters, the lawsuit said.
Shannon Moss, spokesperson for state police and the academy, did not respond to a request for comment.
During the academy’s investigation the Cadet Disciplinary Officer Darin Gilbert relied “heavily” on the written complaint from the female cadet and the small amount of what training exercise supervisor Sgt. Joseph Mills saw, the lawsuit said.
The investigation found there was reasonable cause that Peters violated the academy’s honor code, namely unprofessional conduct and sexual harassment clauses, the lawsuit said. The investigation also said more interviews with cadets should be done.
Peters had a hearing Dec. 13, 2024, to determine if he engaged in “verbal sexual harassment,”
“physical sexual harassment,” “unprofessional conduct,” and “sexual harassment” of a fellow
cadet through “unwelcome sexual conduct” and “suggestive or lewd remarks,” the lawsuit said.
The hearing looked at the alleged groping as well as other actions by Peters earlier in the training program involving other female cadets, the lawsuit said. He allegedly made sexual jokes and made a comment to a fellow cadet that it looked like she was performing oral sex as she ate a banana.
Those allegations were not brought up at the time of the comments, but instead came up after the alleged groping after the pepper spray, the lawsuit said.
“The Hearing Panel members — all high-ranking law-enforcement and corrections officials — were under institutional pressure to demonstrate that [the academy] takes allegations of sexual
harassment seriously, particularly in a highly public, open-to-the-public hearing,” the lawsuit said.
The three-person panel was made up of Maine State Police Chief Detective Anna Love, Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty and Portland police Major Jason King.
“A finding in favor of Peters risked political or public criticism,” the lawsuit said.
The academy’s board decided to revoke Peters’ certifications that allowed him to work as a corrections and law enforcement officer in November, the lawsuit said.
The board said Peters by “grabbing” the female cadet’s breasts and “moving his hands to her groin area and making sexually suggestive remarks during a search exercise,” he “knowingly, intentionally or recklessly caused offensive physical contact to another, which conduct constitutes the Class D crime of assault,” the lawsuit said.
Peters had a right to another hearing that would have been in front of the same board that revoked his certifications, according to the lawsuit.
The 32-page lawsuit names the following: Maine Criminal Justice Academy; Board of Trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy; board chairperson Charles Rumsey, IV; academy Director Jack Peck, Jr.; academy Assistant Director Lincoln Ryder; academy training coordinator Joshua Daley; academy training coordinator Darin Gilbert; Sgt. Joseph Mills; Assistant Attorney General Andrew Black; board member Chief Detective Anna Love; board member and Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty; board member Major Jason King; and 10 “John and Jane Does.”