NORTHEAST HARBOR, June 27, 2023 - Police were looking to clarify whether protesters indeed trespassed on dark money operative Leonard Leo’s property Sunday when they issued warnings after several “criminal complaints” were filed.
No arrests were made.
Capt. David Kerns confirmed today he has been advised by assessor Kyle Avila that public roads in Maine have a 33-foot easement - or 16.5 feet from the center of the road on both sides which may be accessed by the protesters.
The QSJ reported two years ago that the state DOT lawyers ordered neighbors of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Manset to remove a fence and boulders placed on the side of the road to discourage parking by customers, citing the existence of such an easement.
On Sunday at 4:05 p.m., officer Elias Burne and another officer responded to several complaints of “trespassing and individuals obstructing the roadway on south shore Road.”
Witnesses said they told the protesters they were trespassing on land owned by Leo. However, Avila said Leo may own the land, but the easement still gives the protesters the right to stand within16.5 feet from the center of the road.
Kerns said the police on Sunday did not have that information. Several protesters moved to the other side after being told to move, but several stayed on the gravel well within the 16-feet boundary, witnesses said.
The town should give Leo frequency rewards as the top user of police services in town ever since protesters began planting themselves in front of his home at 46 South Shore Road after the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs. Wade last summer.
On May 11, Hancock County District Attorney Robert Granger dismissed a disorderly conduct charge last July against a 22-year-old protester telling the local constabulary essentially to stop wasting his time and to bring real crimes. That arrest occurred also on a Sunday.
“One of my primary goals has been to focus our attention on prosecutions involving violent offenders rather than getting bogged down in cases in which reasonable persons could arrive at different opinions,” Granger wrote.
“We have far more serious cases to focus our attention on such as drug trafficking that results in overdose deaths, sexual assaults, manslaughter cases, kidnapping, robberies, burglaries and the like. We are currently short one prosecutor and our case load is up over 27% from this same time last year. As of May 5, 2023, we have 1,602 cases pending in Prosecutorial District 7, (Hancock and Washington Counties). Our caseload is up 53.3% in Hancock County over May 2019, and Washington County cases are up 27.1% during that same period. Our staffing has gone unchanged. In short, we are stretched to the limit right now.
“If we are to make serious efforts to tackle the case backlog problem, hard decisions must be made. Those decisions are sometimes difficult for victims to appreciate but if we don’t get our caseload under control the entire system will collapse.
“Even if a jury found conduct criminal here, it was on the de minimis side of the equation. I could not imagine a Court would impose anything other than a small fine on a conviction. Hence, this case was on the lower end of our priority list.”
See the video of the ugly arrest last year:
The Sunday protest was organized to acknowledge the anniversary of the overturn of Roe V. Wade. Protesters circulated this website stating their grievances against Leo.
Even in the rain, the protest drew one of the largest crowds since it began. Reporters were there from ProPublica, The New Yorker and MSNBC.
Here is a video of Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” conducting interviews:
And today I drove by Charlotte's and there are new traffic cones and no parking signs on the other side of the road. So much for the DOT.
Leonard Leo is a pig. He hangs with buddies whose goal, same as his own, is to corrupt the US Supreme Court. Lenny's chum Harlan Crow, son of developer and deceased billionarie Texan Trammel Crow, bribes Justice Clarence Thomas with $500,000 vacations and private jet flights to that Post Cereals camp in the NY Adirondacks. Lenny's picks for the Supreme Court, organized by Mr. Trump, all flat-out lied when asked in Senate Confirmation Hearings about Roe v. Wade, saying that this 1973 case, whatever its dubious merits (and, concededly, the foundation for that Decision was a tad shaky), was "settled law." Then that cohort of fresh Judges proceeded to overturn that "well-settled law" at the very first opportunity, thundering from the Bench that it was wrongly decided. Full disclosure: signing off on that Decision was Brett Kavanaugh, my fraternity brother from Yale. I remain disappointed.
"Settled law" means the Decison will not be further disturbed. The idea behind "settled law" is that society has agreed on the Ruling, incorporated it into its collective vision, and moved on. Whether or not one individual, whether Lenny Leo or the Pope or anyone else (including me) is in agreement is no longer the issue; the matter is "settled" for society. When you decide to blow up settled law, you better have a very good reason for doing so, as it will wreak chaos on society.
What is the "best law" for Roe? It is that "Congress shall make NO law..." Medical decisions are private and remain between a physician and her patient, not between politicians and patients. The State has no business sticking its nose into private medical decisions, period. Not in a free society. When Lenny decides that he will, nonetheless, become the determinator for a hundred million others, don't be surprised he reaps the oppobrium of his neighbors.
Hey, keep picketing the guy, let him move to Oklahoma. Better for him to enjoy pig manure instead of crystal Maine waters.