Maine state troopers and the leadership of the Maine State Police have formally rejected allegations of excessive force in federal court filings, disputing a York County man’s narrative of a violent encounter that occurred during his March 2024 arrest. The legal response marks the defendants' first formal rebuttal to the civil rights complaint filed against them following an altercation that was captured on dashboard camera video.
The lawsuit, initiated by Justin Savage of Limerick, names three individual state police officers alongside Col. William Ross, the head of the Maine State Police. In their court filings submitted this week, the troopers and Ross provided general rebuttals to the claims asserted by Savage’s legal team, asserting that the plaintiff's characterization of the confrontation is inaccurate and ungrounded.
In addition to denying the core accusations of misconduct, the defendants outlined key legal defenses they intend to present should the matter proceed to trial. Among the primary arguments raised is the doctrine of qualified immunity. This legal shield protects law enforcement officers from civil liability and financial damages unless a plaintiff can establish that the officers violated clearly established statutory or constitutional law.
The litigation centers on an incident that occurred on the evening of March 16, 2024, when troopers arrived at Savage’s residence in Limerick. Law enforcement had responded to the property following an initial report of domestic violence. Both Savage and his girlfriend disputed the validity of the domestic violence report during their discussions with the responding officers.
According to records of the incident, the initial engagement between the troopers and the couple began peacefully before deteriorating rapidly into a chaotic physical struggle. During the confrontation, Sgt. Adam Schmidt suffered a broken leg while tackling Savage to the ground in the driveway of the home.
The physical struggle culminated in actions captured on law enforcement dashcam footage, which documented one of the officers striking Savage multiple times in the head. The video evidence shows Cpl. Jamie Fenderson delivering repeated blows to Savage's face and head while Savage was lying on the ground in handcuffs.
The force applied during the encounter left Savage with severe visible injuries, rendering him nearly unrecognizable in his post-arrest booking photograph. While policing specialists have noted that applying such physical strikes against an individual who is already restrained is rarely justifiable under standard police practices, the Maine State Police maintained that the actions taken by the troopers were appropriate under the circumstances.
An internal administrative review conducted by the Maine State Police subsequently cleared all of the involved officers of departmental wrongdoing. Agency leadership consistently defended the determination that the use of physical force was justified, declining at the time to address detailed questions raised about the specific mechanics of the arrest.
Legal defense for the law enforcement personnel is being managed by the office of Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. The state’s attorneys are representing Col. Ross as well as the three troopers directly implicated in the driveway confrontation: Cpl. Jamie Fenderson, Sgt. Adam Schmidt, and Det. Anna Doughty.
Following the March 2024 arrest, Savage was initially charged with multiple offenses, including assault on a police officer. However, those criminal proceedings were ultimately halted when York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery’s office made the determination to dismiss all criminal charges filed against Savage in connection with the incident.
The formal response from the troopers comes in the wake of preliminary rulings issued by U.S. District Court Judge Stacey Neumann. In an August decision, the federal judge narrowed the scope of the litigation by dismissing several counts from Savage's complaint, including allegations that the troopers intentionally destroyed evidence and defamed him through a misleading public press release.
Judge Neumann concluded that the claims regarding evidence destruction and public defamation lacked necessary legal standing to move forward. Despite trimming those specific counts, the court permitted Savage’s central claims regarding excessive force and civil rights violations to remain intact and advance toward a formal trial.
The controversial arrest and its administrative aftermath were previously highlighted in a comprehensive, multi-part joint investigative reporting project conducted by The Maine Monitor and the Bangor Daily News' Maine Focus team. That investigation detailed the disparity between the recorded video footage, standard policing practices, and the state police's internal exoneration of the troopers.
Savage's legal action was the first of two separate excessive force lawsuits brought against the Maine State Police during the same autumn period. The consecutive civil filings prompted scrutiny from state lawmakers, who subsequently pressed Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck for answers regarding agency oversight and accountability in use-of-force incidents across the state.
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