A lawmaker accused of using his position to gain preferential treatment will receive a written reprimand, the House Ethics Committee decided Tuesday.
The committee found insufficient evidence that the actions of Rep. Richard Blanchard, D-Old Town, tried to intimidate officers who responded to his camp on Cold Stream Pond in Enfield July 4 to investigate illegal fireworks being used there.
After hearing testimony from the three responding officers and five of Blanchard’s family members, the committee voted unanimously to draft a letter that characterized Blanchard’s actions as “disrespectful” and “unbecoming to a state representative,” but stopped short of calling them “abusive.”
Blanchard was accused of being verbally abusive and poking Scott Richardson, a veteran investigator for the State Fire Marshal’s office, in the chest, according to reports written by Richardson and fellow investigator Edward Hastings. Sgt. Ronald Dunham of the Maine Warden Service, the third officer involved in the incident, corroborated some of the other officers’ accounts and characterized the scene as “as close to as possible riotous situation as I have ever seen.”
Those who testified on Blanchard’s side, including three of his daughters, his son and his wife, admitted that some of the more than 30 guests at the camp that night hurled insults at the officers and protested their actions by singing the “Star Spangled Banner,” but they denied the accusations against Blanchard.
“There were mistakes made on all sides,” said Nancy Blanchard, the lawmaker’s wife. “This was an unfortunate incident.”
Blanchard and his witnesses contended that their ire was triggered by Hastings, who upon arriving at the camp began asking a 15-year-old boy, Blanchard’s grandson, for identification because the investigator had seen him in possession of a box of fireworks. Several guests, including the boy’s parents, tried to intervene and the situation escalated from there.
Hastings testified that approaching the boy was normal procedure because he had been seen in possession of the fireworks. Hastings and Richardson testified that Blanchard, angry and aggressive, identified himself as a state representative at least five times, including when the boat reached the dock, but others offered a different description of the events. They said Blanchard wasn’t involved in the situation until several minutes into it when he told officers he owned the camp and would take responsibility for the fireworks.
Blanchard was then served a ticket, the fine for which he subsequently paid.
Richardson claimed he was the target of several derogatory statements by Blanchard and others, including the implication that there would be consequences for his actions. He also testified that Blanchard at one point poked him in the chest.
“Twenty years ago I would have arrested him immediately,” said Richardson to the committee. “I knew I was in a bad situation immediately. I had in the back of my mind that if I tried to arrest him, it could get worse than it was.”
Blanchard denied Richardson’s description of events.
“I hold the office that I hold in deep reverence,” he said. “I did not try to hold my power over anyone.”
Because of the vast discrepancies in the stories offered by the witnesses, some committee members said they couldn’t rightly conclude with certainty that the representative acted in violation of House ethics rules.
“We’re all embarrassed about that day,” said Rep. Windol Weaver, R-York. “I don’t believe it’s gone as far as censure and certainly not expulsion.”
Rep. Cynthia Dill, D-Cape Elizabeth, who is an attorney, said the testimony failed to convince her that Blanchard did what he was accused of.
“In any procedure, there has to be a little more evidence that he engaged in this behavior than not in order to have a finding, but there’s some serious behavior that we need to make a public statement about,” said Dill.
The letter voted on by the committee will be sent to Blanchard, members of the House of Representatives and House Speaker Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, whose request led to the committee’s hearings.
Pingree said after the hearing that she was satisfied with the process.
“They did a thorough investigation of the situation,” she said. “The took it seriously and looked at both sides.”