PARIS — The trial of a Rumford-area woman accused of making a false statement to police when she filed a formal complaint against a Dixfield police officer is expected to get underway on Tuesday morning.
Nikki Libby, 35, faces one count of unsworn falsification, a Class D offense, in connection with the case. If found guilty, she faces a maximum of 364 days incarceration and a $2,000 fine.
Prosecutors claim that Libby lied in a formal complaint filed against Dixfield police Officer Eric Bernier in June last year.
In her complaint, Libby claims that Bernier, while executing a warrant for her arrest on June 14, illegally entered her apartment in Mexico and then used excessive force when arresting her — slamming her into a wall, aggressively applying a pair of handcuffs and forcibly dragging her out of the apartment.
Libby also claimed that the handcuffs were put on too tightly and caused extreme pain to her wrists.
During the arrest, she said, she complained to Bernier that he was hurting her and was undergoing a “full-on panic/anxiety attack” during the episode.
Justin Clay, 34, who, at the time, lived in the same residence as Libby, supported her claims in a sworn witness statement file along with the complaint.
An internal investigation into the complaint completed on July 23, Dixfield police Lt. Jeffrey Howe determined that Libby’s claims of excessive force and illegal entrance were unfounded.
“After my investigation was complete, I found no reason to believe Libby’s accusations of Clay’s statements of events,” Howe wrote in an attached police report seeking unsworn falsification charges against Libby.
During his investigation, Howe interviewed Bernier and then-Mexico police officer William Cook, who was with Bernier during the arrest and denied that any excessive force took place. Cpl. Todd Hussey and Officer Tony Elias, from the Oxford County Jail, were also interviewed and both said there was no indication Libby had been hurt by the handcuffs.
Additionally, Howe references a video taken by a wearable digital camera used by Bernier at the time of the arrest that allegedly contradicts the complaints Libby and Clay made in their statements to police.
A call to Libby’s attorney Ron Hoffman was not returned Friday afternoon.
A jury for the case was selected in Oxford County Superior Court on Friday morning. Prosecutors expect the trial to last two days.
Libby also faces charges of perjury, false swearing, unsworn falsification, false public report and falsifying physical evidence in another unrelated case. She was indicted on those charges by an Oxford County grand jury in June.
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