Freedom residents voted 122-91 to recall Heather Donahue from the town Select Board on Wednesday.
Donahue, a former Hollywood actor who starred in the influential horror movie “The Blair Witch Project” and moved to Maine in recent years, has faced months of pushback from residents for her involvement in a dispute over a local road.
The vote came two days after another member of the Select Board, Ryan Willette, stepped down. That means the remaining board member, Chairperson Laura Greeley, will be limited in what she can do until a special election can be held to fill the two vacancies.
After the ballots were counted on Wednesday, chairperson Greeley, who was present for the count, stated that “the majority of the people spoke.”
“It’s disappointing to me that town work, the business of the town, has been halted,” Greeley said. “There were items we needed to get on the June ballot. We’re not able to do that now.”
To fill the vacancies left by Donahue and Willette, a shortened process for candidate nomination will take place. Freedom will allot a 10-day span for interested parties to stir up public support and get the 25 signatures needed to be added to the ballot.
The full process may take up to five weeks, Greeley said.
Town attorney Bill Kelly said during all of his years in practice he has never faced a “last man standing” case like this one.
Donahue was elected to the Select Board last year after moving to Freedom in 2022.
The backlash to Donahue came after she used spray paint to mark a group of trees along Beaver Ridge Road, which the town has asserted is a public road. Donahue, who lives on the road, has said that she was surveying it in her role as an elected official.
But critics — including some people who live around Beaver Ridge Road — have argued the road is private property and that Donahue was acting outside her official duties when she marked the trees. The town is now being sued by a local family that has made some of those claims.
During a public hearing on Donahue’s removal last week, some residents also accused her of unprofessional behavior in their encounters with her. The petition for her removal singled out words she has used to describe the lawsuit against the town, including “extortion” and “peddling half truths.”
Donahue has defended her choice of words, and other attendees of the public hearing argued that she was deserving of a second chance.
Greeley said some of the town discussion around Beaver Ridge Road, namely the public’s opinion on the use of eminent domain on the land, will have to be put on hold until the town has a full Select Board. The measure to eliminate Donahue’s position also freezes the court case regarding the land dispute on Beaver Ridge Road, Greeley said.
