Joshua Gray, PI: Michael Harrington Threatens lawsuit against Massachusetts PI

By Joshua Gray, PI from Boston, Mass

In an apparent effort to silence me from uncovering a possible corrupt connecting between a large Maine private investigation company and Maine State Police Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier, Sgt. Michael Johnston and Sgt. Michael Zabarsky; Michael Harrington of “Merrill’s Investigations’ has sent a cease and desist letter to me. In the letter he references two articles that I wrote, where I brought up some serious questions about Mr. Harrington’s connections and friendships with the aforementioned troopers and the State legislatures recent changes in the Private Investigation laws. In my article I suggest that “someone should look into” the possibility that Mr. Harrington used his position as the President of the Maine Licensed Private Investigator Association (MLPIA) to influence and urge lawmakers to change the Maine PI laws. I suggested that “someone should look into” information that Mr. Harrington’s lawyer(s) wrote a draft of the new law before it went to lawmakers.

My article went on to lay out a compelling argument, based on a survey of current and former clients, that Michael Harrington was using State Police Lt. Scott Ireland to put his competition out of business and then sweeping in to take their clients. I again made the suggestion that “someone should look into that”. My article continued to show that Mr. Harrington had become the chairman of the Maine Board of Licensure of Professional Investigators. That’s rights, Mr. Harrington is on a board that over see’s and regulates HIMSELF! I asked the question, “how is that even legal?” All of the statements I made, and questions that I asked, where based on information that I obtained from multiple sources and research including information taken directly from Mr. Harrington’s company website. My motivation for writing the article was to expose possible criminal activity in an effort to improve the Maine Private Investigation industry and make it a fair playing field for all PI’s, not just one well connected PI. I did not even know who Michael Harrington was prior to starting my research into possible corruption with Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier and Sgt. Michael Johnston. A good investigator will follow the evidence and that is exactly how I discovered this possible illegal and unethical connection between Michael Harrington and some State Troopers.

Mr. Michael Harrington sent me a cease and desist letter through his attorney, Richard D Tucker, and demanded that I stop all defamation of the character and reputation of Michael C. Harrington and Merrill’s Investigation and Security Services, LLC. I was surprised they used the threat of a lawsuit to communicate with me when at the end of each article I ask for readers to send me an email if I am wrong with any of the facts or have additional information. Rather than threaten me with a lawsuit, Mr. Harrington could have easily just sent me an email. I am not interested in making false statements about an honest businessman, I am only interested in the truth. The questions and suggestions that I made were based on information that I obtained. They were valid questions that deserve to be answered.

The most interesting thing about Mr. Harrington’s cease and desist letter, sent through his attorney, is that he only denies that he used undue influence to pressure Maine Lawmakers to change the PI laws and that he pressured Maine police detectives to put competing investigators out of business. I have compelling information from multiple sources, as well as a survey of my clients, that contradicts this claim and I once again call on someone at the State Attorney General’s office or an independent investigator to look into this further. I ask that Mr. Harrington join me in requesting this investigation in an effort to uncover the truth of this matter.

One of the most interesting questions that arose when I received Mr. Harrington’s cease and desist letter was ‘why did he send it?’ My articles focused on the possible corruption with Maine State Police Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier and Sgt. Michael Johnston. I even wrote multiple times that “I do not have anything against Mr. Harrington”. So I again ask the question, why would he send a cease and desist letter. The first reason that comes to mind is that he wanted to intimidate me with the threat of a lawsuit because what I wrote hurts his business. However he does not ask me to amend or correct the articles. He did not ask that I take out the sections about him or his company. He demanded that I delete all articles from the internet within 10 days or face a lawsuit. So why then would he ask me to delete articles that could just as easily be amended, articles that do not focus entirely on him, articles that in fact make Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier and Sgt, Michael Johnston look much worse than Mr. Harrington. This led me to the realization that if I complied with Mr. Harrington’s request to delete my articles from the internet, it would be much more beneficial to Maine State Police Lt. Scott Ireland, Det. David Pelletier and Sgt. Michael Johnston than it would for Mr. Harrington. In fact I went to a google.com search engine and conducted a search for my article’s using Mr. Harrington’s name and discovered they don’t even show up for the most part. While if I search for the same articles using any of the trooper’s names or my own name, the articles show up on the first page of results. This seemed to confirm my theory was correct, the cease and desist letter benefits the troopers I am complaining about much more than Mr. Harrington.

So this leads to a complicated and interesting question. Did Lt. Ireland, Det. Pelletier or Sgt. Johnston ask Michael Harrington to send the cease and desist letter to me?

Here is a copy of the letter: