A police department in western Maine was likely the first to restrict someone’s access to weapons under the state’s so-called red flag law, less than a week after it went into effect.
Police in the Oxford County town of Paris requested an extreme risk protection order on Feb. 26 for a 60-year-old man who they said is a threat to his community, according to Oxford Superior Court records.
Maine’s “red flag” law went into effect on Feb. 21.
A judge ordered the man to relinquish all his weapons the same day the order was filed. He had no weapons to give up, according to records.
The man is contesting the weapons restriction, as the state’s red flag law creates a “second class” of citizens, the man’s lawyer, Michael Gillis, wrote in a motion to dismiss the case. The BDN is not naming the man because he has only been charged with misdemeanor offenses.
The case is likely the first use of Maine’s “red flag” law. Its public court documents provide insight into how police are using it and how people subjected to the law are challenging it. The law, which was passed in November, allows family members or law enforcement to file an “extreme risk protection order” against someone, after which a court can rule that the person’s weapons be taken away.
Red flag cases are public but documents are only available at courthouses, Judicial Branch spokesperson Barbara Cardone said. The judiciary is working to digitize court records, and more records are becoming visible as courthouses come online. Kennebec and Somerset counties moved online in late January.
The man in Paris has a criminal complaint and protection from abuse order pending, according to records. He lives near a local school and has also allegedly inflicted or attempted to inflict physical harm to someone.
He allegedly attacked a friend in January and claimed he was God. He was taken to a hospital where he was given an anti-psychotic medication, court records said.
Over the next couple weeks the man was served with multiple trespass orders, and was making “strange” comments to people, including asking where someone’s kids go to school, court records said.
The extreme risk protection order was set to expire on March 10, as it is standard to expire within 14 days unless a judge extends it. Gillis filed to extend that order so he could prepare a defense to fight it.
Gillis filed a motion to dismiss the case on March 23 and asked for a hearing as soon as possible, court records said. The case is scheduled for a hearing on April 21 in Oxford courts.
The red flag law creates a “second class” of citizens who have their right to bear arms restricted with a lower threshold than other orders, Gillis wrote in his motion. There is less requirement for proof that a person is dangerous than the existing “yellow flag” law, where someone must need protective custody before weapons are restricted.
A main reason for the red flag law was to bring family and friends into the mix but so far it appears only police have used the new law, Gillis said. The state now has two laws that essentially do the same thing.
Yellow flag is a bit harder to execute as there are barriers — such as protective custody — that must be met that the red flag law does not have, Gillis said. Red flag reduces the amount of evidence from “clear and convincing” to only requiring a preponderance of evidence, he said.
The Maine Constitution enshrines a right to bear arms, and yellow flag worked with due process to avoid taking away a right without “clear and convincing evidence,” Gillis said. Red flag violates that due process, he said.
No matter what the goal of the red flag law was, the two most important elements of yellow flag law were removed and that restricts a person’s constitutional rights, Gillis wrote in his motion, according to court documents.
Voters passed the red flag law with 62% in favor in November. But, public support for a law and moral and common sense justification does not necessarily mean a law is constitutional, Gillis said.
In another recent case, Fairfield police used the law on Feb. 27 for a Brooklyn, New York, man who was visiting Maine. A year-long order was granted without being contested on March 12.
An affidavit and petition were not publicly visible in the Fairfield case, but those were available for the Paris case.
