Judge dismisses court filing against sheriff, deputy
A Lincoln County Superior Court justice has dismissed a Newcastle man’s court filing that had named Sheriff Todd Brackett and Deputy Mark Bridgham as defendants.
The court does not currently have jurisdiction in the matter, according to the order Justice Daniel Billings signed March 14.
“(The) untitled document that the clerk has docketed as a complaint is actually a notice of claim,” prepared in connection with the Maine Tort Claims Act, the order states.
The jurisdiction question was one of the issues the county raised in seeking the document’s dismissal; the county had also argued that the document failed to state a claim on which the court could base an award to Raoul Nelson. However, the order Billings signed has a line through that portion of the county’s argument.
Brackett on Monday said he and Bridgham continued to have no comment on the matter. He deferred comment to the county’s attorney, John Wall. Wall did not immediately return a phone message left March 24.
Nelson said March 24 that he planned to continue taking steps the law requires to pursue an injury claim; he has to seek the claim due to medical costs, he said. In the document the court received in January, and dismissed March 14, Nelson claimed that in August 2015 he had a massive heart attack after Bridgham purportedly tried to fit him into a cruiser’s back seat that was too small for his frame.
The document named Brackett as a defendant along with Bridgham; however, Nelson’s narrative made no accusations against Brackett.
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