BREAKING NEWS: Council to review town manager's actions as protester seeks investigation
BAR HARBOR, Sept. 6, 2022 - The Town Council is scheduled to discuss tonight Town Manager Kevin Sutherland’s recent actions to keep protester AnnLinn Kruger from painting messages on sidewalks and streets calling out Leonard Leo’s Federalist Society deeds, chair Val Peacock informed Kruger in an email.
“Hi Annlinn, I’ve been offline camping for the past few days, but wanted to let you know that we will be talking with Kevin in executive session this evening. Best, Val,” Peacock wrote this morning.
As if to punctuate the situation here, Leo made national headlines again this weekend when a Donald Trump appointee, Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, granted his request for a special master to review the nearly 11,000 documents FBI agents seized in their search of the Trump Organization’s property at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8.
Cannon has been a member of the Federalist Society for almost 20 years. She was widely criticized by legal experts for her action.
Local activists, including Kruger, have been protesting in front of Leo’s home at 46 South Shore Road in Northeast Harbor since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade. In late August, Kruger began her graffiti campaign in Bar Harbor, her home town.
“Over the past couple of weeks, I've sent you all updates documenting how Town Manager Kevin Sutherland has used threats to try to intimidate me into ending my google Leonard Leo chalk graffiti project and how Sutherland is using municipal resources to remove my chalk graffiti,” Kruger wrote the Town Council.
The QSJ asked Sutherland whether he was taking such actions because of personal political beliefs. He did not reply.
Kruger referenced Sutherland’s interview in the Islander in which he “makes the odd claim I am not in a position to want to arrest her. In fact, Sutherland is not in a position to arrest me. But his documented and hearsay threats show that he wants to have me arrested,” Kruger wrote.
https://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/kruger-claims-harassment-says-phone-was-grabbed
“Sutherland makes a unilateral executive order that she needs to be held accountable for what she is doing. This is a baseless claim, but a dangerous assertion. There is no accountability attaching to my acting within my constitutionally protected rights and within the Maine Criminal Code - the first of which Sutherland has no authority to violate and the second of which Sutherland has no authority to enforce. On whom is Sutherland placing the responsibility of holding me accountable. His audience?
“Sutherland expands on his dissembling by asserting ... what she is doing, which is a violation of our local laws. As there are no local laws which have been violated, I suggest this is for rhetorical effect.”
“People don't like it when their local laws are violated,” Kruger quoted Sutherland as saying.
“In fact, Sutherland is saying: our local laws are being violated, my hands are tied, but the outlaw must be held accountable. This sounds like a dog whistle inviting people to take the law into their own hands. In context of a situation of verbal threats moving to include physical assault,” Kruger wrote
“Bar Harbor Town Manger Kevin Sutherland has used his municipal office to make ending my google Leonard Leo chalk graffiti project a municipal priority and removing my chalk graffiti a priority for Bar Harbor's municipal workforce. Why? What are the Town Council's next steps? Will you investigate Sutherland's official activities regarding the google Leonard Leo chalk graffiti project? Did Sutherland act within the bounds of his job description and in the best interests of Bar Harbor? As you investigate Sutherland's misconduct, what transparency will be provided for the public?”
The QSJ has asked Peacock and Sutherland numerous times for comment and did not get a reply.
On Saturday, the QSJ published a history of Sutherland’s intimidations and actions while as the city administrator of Saco, which resulted in lawsuits and similar protests, including a finding by the Maine Human Rights Commission that he discriminated against employees. See attached, third article:
https://theqsjournal.substack.com/p/as-tourism-interests-tighten-grip