AUGUSTA — Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, I-Friendship, said one year ago that he would pursue law enforcement system reform in Maine, were he to be reelected in November 2020 to his seat representing the people of House District 91: Friendship, (part) Union, Waldoboro, Washington in the Maine Legislature.

He has held firm to his word, with a number of bills relating to corrections and law enforcement presented and debated since early March and before the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Judiciary, of which he is also a member.

But on Thursday, April 29, one of his most ambitious bills to land before his fellow committee members will be L.D. 214, An Act To Eliminate Qualified Immunity for Police Officers. 

It is a measure under debate in other states, as well as the U.S. Congress.

 The language of L.D. 214  is short, and its summary reads: “This bill eliminates the ability to assert a defense of qualified immunity for civil action concerning the actions of state police officers, sheriffs, deputies, constables, municipal police officers, marine patrol officers, game wardens and Capitol Police officers brought under the Maine Civil Rights Act.”

Despite its brevity, the bill carries much weight and if approved by the full Legislature and signed into law by the Governor, would substantially change current practices with law enforcement and the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Already, much testimony has been submitted regarding it, from those in favor of its passing and those opposing it.

A recent Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law study, “Qualified Immunity on Appeal: An Empirical Assessment,” said, “Qualified immunity is a powerful doctrine that can bar a damages remedy in civil rights cases even where a plaintiff can establish that her constitutional rights were violated.”

The study’s release, dated March 4, 2021, analyzed “4,000 decisions in the federal courts of appeals, encompassing every appellate opinion issued regarding qualified immunity in the years 2004-2008 and 2010-2015,” and concluded: “Qualified immunity is considered to be one of the most significant barriers to civil rights enforcement, and it is currently under assault from multiple perspectives. The Supreme Court has made clear that it views qualified immunity as an increasingly important tool in protecting defendants from damages liability. The evidence suggests that district courts are less sanguine on the doctrine, using it far less often to resolve civil rights cases.”

Some states have already passed varying forms of legislation that changes their own qualified immunity laws.

The proposed Maine bill is a carry-over bill from the 129th Legislature, and was forced from review due to the pandemic and the 2020 closing the state capitol. The bill will finally get its full committee hearing, and can be watched on the committee’s YouTube channel.

The hearing on the bill, as well as several other law enforcement related bills, begins at 9 a.m.

“ This is a long over due reform that will align the rights of all people, including the police,” said Envagelos. “One nation, one people, all subject to the same laws, no exceptions. Let us never forget that we are a civilian nation, ruled by civilians and laws, and that the police and military are subservient to civilian rule, just as President Eisenhower asserted when he stepped down from the military and assumed his civilian oversight powers  as President of the United States in 1952-53.”

L.D. 214 is cosponsored by Senator Dave Miramant, D-Camden; and Representatives Thom Hartnett, D-Gardiner; Victoria Morales, D-South Portland; Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland; and Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell,.

It is, in part, a legislative response to a 2007 police shooting case in Waldoboro, where Gregori Jackson, 18, died during an altercation in the woods between him and then Waldoboro Reserve Office Zachary Curtis. Curtis had pulled over a car with three young men in it, alleging the driver had been driving erratically.  (Read Midcoast Legislator, District Attorney pursue reopening 13-year-old police shooting case).

That case is one reason that Evangelos wants to effect systemic reforms in Maine law enforcement.

“There is no accountability in Maine with the police,” Evangelos said, in June 2020. “When there is misconduct, there is no accountability. We have something called qualified immunity, which allows law enforcement to have a separate set of laws that the rest of us aren’t entitled to.” (See sidebar “What is qualified immunity?)

“The current double standard police benefit from reminds me of the lessons we learned in high school when we read George Orwell's Animal Farm,” he said. “It's an allegory about what happens when one class of people adopt standards that benefit just them at the expense of their peers: ‘Some people are more equal that others.’ As you may recall, that story didn't end well.”

Envangelos is committed to changing the rules and that Maine adopt standards that allow, “its people to legally confront law enforcement in Court when the police abuse their authority and violate our civil rights, up to and including the unlawful use of deadly force against unarmed individuals.”

He said,“Maine's abysmal record of justifying every single police shooting since records have been kept, with a score of 190-0 ruled justified  by Maine's Attorney General's Office, highlights the need for this critical reform.”

And, he said Maine's criminal justice system and the Attorney General's Office suffers from serious systematic biases, conflicts of interest, lack of accountability and lack of transparency.

“As the recent six-part Bangor Daily News series exposed, systemic problems and abuses within Maine's County Sheriff's departments have gone unpunished and uncontested,” said Evangelos. “Coverups and the abuse of non-disclosure agreements, along with the refusal to release critical information  to the press have become the norm, and have all contributed to our loss of faith in law enforcement.”

Another bill with similar intent will also be heard April 29 before the Committee on Judiciary. 

That one, L.D. 1416, An Act To Limit Qualified Immunity of Law Enforcement Officers in Maine Civil Rights Act Claims, removes qualified immunity for a government official for the official's alleged act when it was not clear upon committing the act that the act was a clear violation of an established statutory or constitutional right under the Maine Civil Rights Act if: