Status of my Disorderly Conduct case in Aroostook County

On July 10, 2024 while visiting the beautiful Saint John Valley, I was arrested. Newly-promoted Corporal Ted Martin should have instead issued a warning to our tenant/roommate Kevin Thibeault for threats made against me, and lies told in the middle of the night to me and other family members on June 6, which frightened us. 

In order to avoid being taken to jail in Houlton and be brought before a judge the next day...the notorious, nonrefundable "pay not to stay" fee (aka bail) of $60 had to be paid. My husband, Pete, paid it.

From a story at News Center Maine in 2018 by Shannon Moss "Getting out of jail in Maine: Who decides someone's bail after arrest" Anne Jordan says the bail commissioners set the bail amount and/or other conditions of release, and

...the taxpayers of Maine don't pay a penny for them. Bail commissioners make up to $60 dollars for each case, money paid for by the individual arrested.

Really? Taxpayers don't pay? I paid the $60, plus 4 days and 4 nights of my freedom on Memorial Day weekend 2025 after refusing to pay another $250 for failing to appear to pick a jury for what would obviously be a sham trial. I simply forgot to put it in my calendar. Rather than schedule it for another day, Judge Nelson issued a warrant for my arrest. 

Nelson was the judge who was presiding over cases in Fort Kent on May 23 when we were scheduled to appear to evict a tenant who started renting a portion of th house from us in April, and tried to claim it all as his; I've nicknamed him Goldilocks. 

The judge read the list of cases/names, and asked some to mediate. Soon the marshall politely told me that I was going to be arrested; I asked if it could wait until we finished up with the eviction case. 

It was Pete's name I put on the paperwork in case I couldn't be there. He and the tenant mediated; I wasn't allowed into the room! That's okay, in the adjacent room I could hear alot of what was said by putting my ear to the wall. It was agreed he would get out of the home within about a week. 

The Fort Kent Chief of police arrived. He's Michael DeLena. Once outside an Aroostook County sheriff deputy arrived to take me to Houlton County jail. I asked Pete to record the arrest on his phone.

During processing I was thrown in the hole for not complying, and left there for 18 hours. "I was born in Fort Kent, Maine" is all I would have had to say to avoid that; yet it was good to have experienced and survived it. Sing and exercise is all I could do in the hole. Sleep was impossible on a narrow hard bench with nothing but a blanket. If I even got close to sleep, screams from guys in cells near me kept me from it. 

One guy was begging to go back to the shower, saying it hurt. I found out he'd been pepper sprayed. He was in for criminal mischief; I didn't ask for more details. It was difficult to hear each other through the prison doors. He was only 20 years old. I asked if he had family that helped him. He said he did. I asked if he had a girlfriend. I was surprised by his answer because it sounded l.ike "f*** you". It was actually "a few." When he was making noise some of the guys were telling him to "shut the f*** up", so I hollered out "he's just a kid."

The water was horrible, tasted like chlorine. After several hours in the hole, I started to cough. My throat felt irritated; I soon realized that it was probably ammonia vapors in the room that was the reason I was coughing. I asked for them to flush my toilet - a hole in the cement floor.

In passing by other inmates to get my lunch tray when I was moved to the general population, I mentioned my son's name. One of the inmates said her boyfriend, who'd just been released was Shane's friend in prison. 

It took a whole day to get something for my lips; by Tuesday they were so chapped they were about to bleed! When the medic came, even though I wasn't on any medication I asked for something and she gave me some ointment which gave me immediate relief. 

I wasn't given a phone call until Tuesday afternoon. Pete had waited in the parking lot for 6 hours because he thought I'd see the judge Tuesday morning and be released. One of the girls said from their window she could see a man in a white truck had been parked there for hours...it was Pete. I wasn't even given a phone call until Tuesday afternoon shortly before I was released. 

Below you will see the status of my case. 

The district attorney, satisfied that I'd been punished enough, dismissed the charges... though the only thing I'm guilty of is failing to consent to a scam court proceeding which would have ended in a finding of not guilty and been a waste of taxpayer dollars, and an embarrassment to the State of Maine. 

My arraignment - Judge and officer payroll records

On November 4, 2024 I was arraigned in Fort Kent District Court. The case was presided over by Judge Carrie Linthicum.

I later googled her name and discovered that Judge Carrie Linthicum's pay in 2023 ($148,231.60) was three times her co-workers in Maine, and twice that of the national average. Judge Nelson, who sentenced Shane and who is now presiding over this ridiculous charge of disorderly conduct, had the same pay as Linthicum. And I found the pay for the Maine State trooper Ted Martin who arrested me. He must have had an increase in pay around the time of my arrest on July 10, 2024 because he'd just been promoted to corporal, imagine that.

The link to the payroll records is simply openpayrolls.com

If you don't get results in the search bar in the middle of the page, try using the search on the sidebar to the left, which you can use filters. I found District Attorney Todd Collins pay from there. 

Todd R Collins worked as a District Attorney for the State of Maine and in 2023 had a reported pay of $135,021.60 according to public records. This is 94.6 percent higher than the average pay for state employees and 88.2 percent higher than the national average for government employees.

So now, for what happened at my arraignment. She, the judge, would not drop the bail condition which forbid me to be at the home on our property...even though our tenant moved out soon after my arrest and notice of eviction. I did not agree that the court had jurisdiction and would not enter a plea, so Judge Linthicum entered one for me, of "not guilty".

Unanimous decision reversed - Judicial misconduct?

A unanimous decision by the Maine Supreme Court is reversed by the Maine Supreme Court in Pushard v. Finch. The decision involves the proceedures used by financial institutions in foreclosures.

Under Finch, foreclosing lenders will no longer face the draconian consequence of a simple error in a default notice resulting in the forfeiture of its note and mortgage.

Sorry, but there'll be no more free houses if the bank makes an error people. I mean it was a unanimous decision, now overturned. That's unusual. I found a story at the Seacoastonline by Douglas Rooks on January 4 2025, titled Judicial ethics complaints can't be ignored in Maine which shed some light on this case. 

For the first time ever, one of its own members, Associate Justice Catherine Connors, has been recommended for discipline by the Committee on Judicial Conduct after failing to recuse herself for an important foreclosure case in which she cast the deciding vote. 

I see....could it be she had ties to the winning party in that case?

Domestic violence victims - how they feel about police

Here's a Bangor Daily News story about Victim Servicea in Maine and how only half of the funds have been approved that are needed to help them, and other victims of crime. And, from the story:

A recent survey of callers to the National Domestic Violence Hotline found that 39 percent of those who also called police actually felt less safe after calling them; 40 percent said they believed it made no difference.

Office of Professional Standards (OPS) - Maine

📞On Thursday I received a phone call from Officer Christopher Tupper of the Office of Professional Standards regarding my complaint against Corporal Ted Martin. He asked if I had a lawyer. I said "Not yet." I told him I had audio and video footage of Martin's wrongful arrests of me on July 10, and another woman in Saint Agatha on July 11. He wanted me to send him this evidence. I told him "When you play poker, you don't show all your cards."

I have an appointment to speak with an attorney in Aroostook County on Thursday regarding the wrongful arrest and about Shane being sentenced without due process. The Pulitzer Center wrote about accountability of Maine law enforcement in 2019, and you can see that most officers only received temporary suspensions...in other words, unpaid vacations.

Maine House of Reps - seat won by man accused of domestic violence

If you ever thought that your vote didn't matter much, read this story at WGME.

Lucas Lanigan won re-election by one vote; and surprisingly it was right after he was charged with choking his wife! Prior to that, Patricia Kidder was ahead of him. The alleged abuse happened so near the election that it's very possible that voters didn't get a chance to swallow the news.

Another story at WGME says after posting a $3000 bail, Lanigan is not to have contact with his wife. In relationships, things can get complicated and frustrations can turn into violence if there isn't appropriate support or counseling. As it stands, even a phone call would be in violation of the order placed on Lanigan, even though his wife doesn't want him to be charged. 

But is completely cutting off ties always the best option? Sometimes it's the frustration of that disconnect that leads to violence. Despite whether or not there is reunification, when two people can't seem to come to a resolution of their problems, there should be some sort of intervention, mediation in an effort to keep both parties safe...processes that supplement or in some cases replace protection orders. 

The non-profit that organized the march in Sanford is Finding Our Voices. The founder is Patricia McLean, and she interviewed Randall Liberty of the Maine State Prison; his father was an abuser who was in and out of prison. To combat the problems of violence, there's a new state office, The Office of Injury and Violence Prevention, a part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

2.5 years without effective counsel

Shane’s been incarcerated now for over two years, without evidence of self-defense being investigated and considered, and without other individuals being charged...or at least their involvement be considered as a mitigating factor.

After he accepted a plea bargain, Shane was sentenced by Justice Stephen Nelson on 11-08-22 in Aroostook County Superior Court; Nelson may well be the judge who presides over my case AROCD CR 2024 20209. I was wrongfully arrested last summer while on vacation, and I'm being prosecuted for Disorderly Conduct.

The chief justice of the Maine Supreme Court, the mayor and the chief of police of Lewiston, the District Attorney, and others spoke at public meetings held at city hall about violence and public safety. They admit that the system is failing, collapsing, imploding! I'd like to know what they think a total collapse will look like! The State of Maine is violating prisoners' right to counsel. Ineffective counsel is the same as no counsel.

And here's some information about plea bargaining and ineffective counsel.

Follow my blog to get updates about mine and my son’s cases.

Letter to the Court, District Attorney, and Maine State Police

I sent a three-page letter to the court today, four if you include a copy of the threatening text message sent to me from our former tenant/roommate. 

I'm being charged with Disorderly Conduct, but no warning was even given to Kevin for what he did! 

In my letter I requested the judge lift the bail conditions keeping me from being at my property, dismiss the case, but if not dismissed I asked to appear by zoom. And I want the evidence against me...there is none, absolutely none! It was a wrongful arrest. 

If the District Attorney doesn't dismiss the charges, the presiding judge should file a complaint with the Board of Bar of Overseers against him, for malicious prosecution. Most oversights committees dismiss complaints they receive from ordinary people like you and I.

Oh, and I asked for an investigation of the police officer; I threw that in even though I know the judge won't address it. I didn't want to write a separate letter, so I simply added Lieutenant Brian Harris of Troop F to the cc at the end of the letter to the Superior Court, and sent a copy to him, in Houlton.