Maine Attorney General Files a Civil Rights Complaint Against a Couple in Bath

Photo byWesley TingeyonUnsplash

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, that his office had filed a civil rights complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act in Sagadahoc County Superior Court against a couple in Bath, Maine.

The couple, Andrew Pinkham, 44, and Ranada Pinkham, 43, are alleged to have targeted their neighbors, who are a black family originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with racist and xenophobic harassment. According to the complaint, the Pinkhams have been hostile to the Congolese family since they first moved next door to the Pinkhams in April 2024

Attorney General Frey is asking that the court bar the Pinkhams from having any contact with the neighbors.

Attorney General Frey said, “The victims in this case were relentlessly targeted in their home because of who they are and where they come from. When the legislature amended the Maine Civil Rights Act in 2023, this was exactly the type of conduct it intended to prohibit.”

The Maine Civil Rights Act prohibits using violence, the threat of violence, or property damage against any person or engaging in conduct that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress, when that conduct is motivated by bias against the person’s race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The provision prohibiting causing a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress is a newly amended section of the Act. Any violation of an injunctive order under the act is a Class D crime, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

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