LEWISTON — A Bangor-area lawyer is facing a telephone harassment charge for a phone message he allegedly left for Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte.
The racially charged message, left on the mayor’s mobile phone, makes references to lynchings and a recent change in state law that allows adults to carry concealed handguns without permits, and refers to Gov. Paul LePage as LaBonte’s “fat buddy.”
The caller suggests an execution could result from the handgun law change.
Attorney Joseph Connors, 50, of Bangor, was issued a summons to appear in Lewiston District Court on a charge of harassment by telephone or by electronic communications device on Aug. 10, 2015.
The content of the message was such that Auburn police followed up by providing additional security for LaBonte. A plainclothes officer attended public meetings with the mayor for three to four weeks after the message was received. Police also increased patrols in LaBonte’s neighborhood until they were able to identify who they believe made the call.
LaBonte said he thought of brushing off the call as political rhetoric, but after he played the message for Police Chief Phil Crowell, it was decided a possible crime had taken place and it had to be investigated.
The caller’s identification was blocked, so police subpoenaed phone company records to find who the number belonged to and it came back to a phone account for Connors and his wife, according to LaBonte.
The rambling message in a man’s voice, which LaBonte played for the Sun Journal, includes a reference to Auburn School Committee member Christopher Langis and a controversial post he made on Macy’s Facebook page about a black woman from Texas.
LaBonte, also in a Facebook post, later apologized to the woman on behalf of the city and urged Langis to do likewise.
Sworn statements filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court by Auburn Police Sgt. Eric Audette note that the message was threatening toward LaBonte and Langis, but no direct threat was made toward LePage.
The message, according to a transcript in the affidavit, reads:
“You’ve got a problem down there with your racist pal Langis of the school board; I hope you know that. There’s going to be some strange fruit hanging off the streets in Auburn and it’s not going to be black this time around if you get my drift. LePage just signed the concealed carry permit and people like Langis and probably you since you’re a LePage lackey too are one insult away from someone performing an execution and a firing squad. Your Republican idiocy is a problem that you are going to face. It’s really unbelievable what you people have done to this state and you can thank your fat buddy LePage and all your racist friends like Langis for the idiocy and bad business that’s going on, you piece of shit.”
In the affidavit, Audette notes that once he determined the phone number belonged to Connors, he called the number and eventually spoke with Connors, confronting him about the message. Audette wrote in the affidavit that Connors did not deny making the call, but also did not admit that he made it.
“I asked Mr. Connors if he lends his phone out to people,” Audette wrote. “Mr. Connors responded, ‘Not typically, no.’ Later during the conversation, Mr. Connors admitted no one else uses his phone.”
Audette also wrote that he told Connors there was a possibility that LaBonte may not pursue charges against Connors if Connors accepted responsibility and admitted it was an error in judgment.
At one point in the conversation, Connors told Audette, “Certainly it was a mistake, if it was me. I don’t typically threaten people’s lives,” according to the affidavit.
According to records in Androscoggin District Court, Connors entered a plea of not guilty via his lawyer, Jeffrey Silverstein, on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Connors’ next court date is set for January.
Connors, who specializes in probate and trusts and estate law, is the senior director of a philanthropy and planned giving for the Eastern Maine Medical Center Foundation in Bangor.
A former staff attorney for Legal Services for the Elderly, Connors graduated from Maine Maritime Academy in 1986. He earned his law degree at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1997 and was admitted to bar associations in Florida in 2001 and Maine in 2010, where he remains with each in good standing.
A captain in the U.S. Merchant Marine from 1986 to 2002 and a U.S. Navy Reserve commander from 1986 to 2004, according to his LinkedIn profile, Connors resigned his naval commission “due to his disagreement with actions taken by employees of the U.S.,” which were detailed in a 2004 U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services review of the Department of Defense Detention and Interrogation Operations. That review included a series of hearings on the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. armed forces.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Connors offers pro bono legal services to the Maine Volunteer Lawyer project. He cares about civil rights and social action, economic empowerment and poverty alleviation, according to the profile.
Contacted by phone Friday, Connors declined to comment. “I can’t take this call,” he said, and referred all questions to Silverstein.
A message left for Silverstein was not returned Friday.
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