A lawyer on Tuesday called for criminal charges to be filed against the Maine State Police officers who punched and tackled a handcuffed man during an arrest at his home in York County last year.
The man’s attorney, Jeffrey Bennett, said the York County district attorney should convene a grand jury to criminally charge the troopers who assaulted Justin Savage while arresting him in March 2024 at his home in Limerick. The arrest was the subject of a Maine Monitor/Bangor Daily News investigation published earlier this month.
“What happened to Justin was a criminal act,” Bennett said at a Portland press conference. “This case needs to be reviewed by a grand jury, and indictments need to follow from that. If that doesn’t happen, then the criminal justice system in the state of Maine isn’t worth anything.”
The lawyer made his comments nearly two weeks after he filed an excessive force lawsuit against the state’s largest police force in federal court. Bennett also called for the creation of an independent panel to review all of the agency’s use-of-force incidents. None of the troopers involved in his client’s arrest were disciplined for their conduct.
York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery and a spokesperson for the Maine State Police did not immediately respond to requests for a comment on Bennett’s remarks.
Bennett did not name the specific troopers he believed should be criminally charged for assaulting his client. He only described certain uses of force he believed were a crime.
Video footage of the arrest showed Maine State Police Sgt. Adam Schmidt throwing the handcuffed Savage to the ground, a takedown that resulted in the sergeant suffering a broken ankle. A few minutes later, dashcam footage showed Trooper Jamie Fenderson punching the still-handcuffed Savage in the face while sitting on his chest.
Savage was taken to the hospital, where a doctor diagnosed him with a broken nose and a facial contusion, before he was booked at York County Jail. On Tuesday, Bennett said that Savage also suffered “neurological deficits” from the blows.
The state police ruled the use of force by its officers was “lawful, justified and proper,” a finding experts questioned. Jamie Fenderson, the officer who punched Savage in the face, was promoted to corporal during the agency’s internal review of the incident. It was his first promotion in 16 years on the force.
Following the arrest, the state police charged Savage with assault on an officer, assault, domestic violence assault, refusing to submit to arrest and disorderly conduct. Officers also charged Savage’s girlfriend, Shawna Morse, with obstructing government administration and refusing to submit to arrest. However, York County prosecutors dropped all charges against the couple earlier this year.
Bennett also accused the state police of “putting out a false narrative” in their public statements about the arrest.
“They need to start telling the truth,” Bennett said.
A press release issued shortly after the arrest blamed Savage for injuring Schmidt’s ankle. However, audio recording at the scene captured Schmidt saying that Savage should not be charged with assault on an officer in relation to the injury because “we all just landed on my friggin’ ankle the wrong way.”
The state police had previously declined to answer a series of questions from the Monitor/BDN about the incident, citing the lawsuit, but defended the officers’ use of force.
“No force would have been used had the suspect been compliant and no one, including the officers, would have been injured,” Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the state police, said in a statement.
Bennett is representing Savage and Morse in a lawsuit filed earlier this month against the state police for assault, wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation, among other claims. The couple is seeking $100 million in damages, Bennett said.
Reforms are needed at the state police, Bennett said. He called for an external oversight board to review all use-of-force incidents by the Maine State Police, saying the agency “can’t be trusted” to conduct its own reviews. He cited data published by the Monitor/BDN that showed the agency reviewed 776 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and 2024, and never ruled force to be excessive.
“Either these police are perfect, or they’re corrupt,” Bennett said. With video from Savage’s arrest, “we now know they’re corrupt.”
Lawmakers who co-chair the Maine Legislature’s committee on policing issues said earlier this month that they were reviewing Savage’s arrest to see whether they should take any follow-up action of their own. Neither responded to phone calls or emails on Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who previously served as the state’s attorney general and is exploring a campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, has declined to comment on the matter, citing the federal lawsuit.
This story appears as part of a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor. Read more about the partnership.
