PORTLAND, Maine -- A Portland man arrested for demonstrating outside Vice President George Bush's coastal estate has sued the town of Kennebunkport on grounds the arrest violated his right of free speech.
John R. Merrill was arrested July 30, 1983, for disorderly conduct while carrying a placard about half a mile from the entrance to the Bush compound on Walker Point in Kennebunkport.
At the time, Bush was holding a clambake for the nation's governors in conjunction with the summer conference of the National Governor's Association in Portland.
Kennebunkport Police Officer Joseph Bruni Jr. approached Merrill and ordered, 'Back the other way. You're not going to do that around here,' according to a complaint filed this week in Cumberland County Superior Court by the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which is handling the case.
Merrill was then arrested. He was released on bail three hours later and police refused to give him a ride back to his car, located three miles from the station.
Several weeks later, the York County district attorney dismissed the case, saying Merrill's picketing was protected under the First Amendment guarantee to free speech.
'As a direct rsult of the actions of the defendant Bruni, (Merrill) has suffered violations of his rights, privileges and immunites under the Maine and U.S. Constitutions, and suffered humiliation, anguish, anxiety, physical pain, discomfort and has been deprived of his liberty and his freedom to make political statements,' the complaint says.
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Named as defendants are the town of Kennebunkport, Police Chief John Prescott and Bruni.
'I've got nothing to say about the complaint,' Prescott said Friday.
Bruni also declined to comment.
