Security camera footage shows an altercation between select board member Don Chase (second from right) and budget committee member Michael Cox (right) during the budget committees March 25 meeting in the Somerville town office. Cox resigned from the select board following the event. Cox remains a member of the budget committee. (Courtesy photo)
An altercation at the Somerville town office led to violence during a March 25 budget committee meeting. The incident was preceded by a discussion about broadband internet funding and followed by verbal threats, according to security footage reviewed by The Lincoln County News.
“I’m going to beat you to a (expletive) bloody pulp,” budget committee member Michael Cox repeated twice to Somerville Select Board member Don Chase as he was escorted out of the town office by select board Chair Willard Pierpont immediately after the altercation.
The footage was captured on an ADT security camera installed at the office the week before the incident. The camera records video and audio in roughly 30-second intervals, each of which is followed by a gap of at least 30 seconds during which no recording is made.
The portion of the evening’s footage reviewed by The Lincoln County News begins at approximately 5:30 p.m., when Somerville Select Board members Willard Pierpont and Kathryn Jennings were seated in the town office discussing budget procedure with Treasurer Sandra Devaney and Town Clerk Russell Gates.
The joint Somerville Select Board and Somerville Budget Committee meeting planned for 6 p.m. that evening was intended as a session to familiarize both groups with the budgeting process, according to Pierpont.
Cox arrived at 5:47 p.m., followed by budget committee members Cathy Ladd, Janet Percival, Martha Staples, and Bobbi Creamer; Chase; and residents Joseph LaMacchia and Chris Johnson.
Audio quality on the recording is poor. However, the group can be heard discussing the budget before turning to the town-owned broadband network and its finances.
By a few minutes after 7 p.m., LaMacchia, Johnson, and Creamer had departed the meeting. While Ladd, Percival, Staples, and Jennings seemed to be engaged in a separate, inaudible conversation on one side of the table, Pierpont, Cox, and Chase, who was standing, can be heard discussing broadband finances on the other.
The conversation centered on broadband operating costs, totaling more than $25,000, that Pierpont said had not been budgeted for.
“We’re 25,000 in the hole,” Pierpont said in the last recorded clip preceding the video of the altercation itself. Other comments are inaudible.
The clip then ends. The next clip begins more than one minute later.
When the video resumes, at about 7:06 p.m., Cox and Chase, who were directly across from one another at the square table, are walking around the table toward one another. Ladd, who was also standing and is now between the two, turns to face Cox, who pushes her to one side. She stumbles before catching herself on a chair.
When the two men confront one another, they raise their hands and appear to brace against one another before Chase leans forward and falls to the ground. The fall causes the pair to be partially obscured by a wall.
Pierpont yells “all right,” rises, and begins to approach the two. Chase lands on the ground and cannot be seen. Cox appears to strike at Chase several times with a closed fist.
A voice can be heard yelling “No Michael, stop, Michael,” just before Chase rises. Pierpont reaches the two and attempts to move Cox toward the door.
As Cox is guided toward the door by Pierpont, he turns and addresses Chase, saying he will beat him before telling Chase to “bring it … outside.”
Cox then steps outside, out of sight of the camera. Chase is still obscured behind a wall.
A few seconds later, Cox stepped inside again.
“Come on,” he said to Chase.
“I’m going to get you on an assault charge,” Chase responded.
The recording, 34 seconds in total, then ends.
The next recording shows budget committee members sweeping up debris from the floor in the area of the altercation while Chase places a call. In later recordings, budget committee members, including Cox, take seats around the table while Chase waits to one side. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, with two deputies arriving at 7:35 p.m.
Both Cox and Chase were charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, or class D, offense.
Chase resigned from the Somerville Select Board the following morning.
Pierpont said he discussed Cox’s seat on the budget committee with the other members the evening of the altercation, and the members present – the entire committee, except Creamer — had concluded that Cox should remain a member of the committee.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a witch hunt,” Chase said when reached by phone on March 27. He said he believed the ongoing discussion about broadband funding was not based on real concerns and was a symptom of ongoing communication problems.
He recounted the events leading to the altercation, saying Cox had insulted him personally and he had responded.
“I shouldn’t have come out with hard words, but I told him to go ‘ef’ himself,” Chase said. “That’s when he threw his glasses off, jumped up from the table, and came after me.”
Chase held the seat of second select board member from 2012 until his resignation in March.
Cox declined to comment when reached by phone.
The next meeting of the Somerville Select Board will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, at the town office. For more information, go to somervillemaine.org or call 549-3828.
