Joshua Gray, PI: 2nd PI Claims Violations by Same Maine State Police

By Joshua Gray, PI from Boston, MA

Bob Doyon of Greene, Maine, who has held a Private Investigator license in Maine for many years, was watching YouTube one night. He came across a video posted by me, a Massachusetts Investigator titled ‘Maine State Police violate the civil, constitutional and human rights of Massachusetts PI’. This video clearly outlined how Lt. Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier charged me with a crime I did not commit and then retaliated against me after winning in court. He was immediately compelled to send me a message because my video stirred up dormant emotions of his experience with the very same troopers.

The next morning I spoke with Mr. Doyon on the phone and our conversation sent chills down my spine. What they did to him was nearly identical to what happened to me. His story began as he recalled working an assignment in Oxford County and obtaining some great footage of a man committing insurance fraud. The man was doing work on an old house. The footage obtained by Mr. Boyon was very damaging to the man’s insurance claim and he was forced to settle for a very low amount. The man was very upset about this and reported Mr. Doyon to the police, stating that he was trespassing on his property when he obtained the footage. After a thorough investigation by the local police, the DA refused to prosecute Mr. Doyon for any crime and cleared him of all wrongdoing.

When Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier along with a Sgt. Zabarsky learned of this incident, they opened a State Police Investigation despite the conclusions of the Oxford county DA. The case was thoroughly re-investigated by the State Attorney General; however the AG office still refused to prosecute the incident. Mr. Doyon’s Private Investigator license needed to be renewed and he sent a renewal application to the State Police. However Lt. Ireland would not authorize the renewal and instead placed his application into a pending status. He then advised Mr. Doyon that he would allow him to illegally work assignments in Maine without a license, pending the outcome of their investigation. Mr. Doyon refused to work in Maine without a valid license fearing that Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier would charge him with that crime also.

The State Police investigation into Mr. Doyon’s Private Investigator license continued. Several fact finding hearings were conducted where he voluntarily spoke with Det. Pelletier and Lt. Ireland about what happened. However Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier were not interested in the truth. They conducted the interviews in a very adversarial manner and seemed frustrated when Mr. Doyon would not go along with their pre-conceived notions of what they alleged, and how they misapply the law. In spite of all the evidence to contrary, including the fact the DA of Oxford County and the State AG would not prosecute, they decided that Mr. Doyon was guilty of criminal trespass and invasion of privacy and decided to revoke his PI license. They became ‘judge, jury and executioner’ and violated the very laws they swore to uphold. This was a clear violation of Mr. Doyon’s constitutional rights of due process and his human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Mr. Doyon was never charged with any crime and clearly qualified for renewal.

Mr. Doyon reached an agreement, under duress, where he would accept a 30 day suspension rather than go through a lengthy and costly appeal process. Mr. Doyon felt the process was rigged and he had no chance of winning the appeal due to political corruption between the PI association and Lt. Ireland & Det. Pelletier. However both Mr. Doyon and I feel that his license should never have been in jeopardy in the first place. He did not break any laws and was never even charged with a crime. When Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier refused to renew his license, they clearly were the law breakers. (Maine criminal law title 17-A Chapter 93-C Section 2931 Interference with constitutional and civil rights. A class D Misdemeanor). They also violated his constitutional rights of equal protection and his human rights of the presumption of innocents.

While going through this process, Mr. Doyon told me that Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier lied to him, approached him in a very adversarial and aggressive manner and never seemed interested in the truth. While he went through the details of his story, it almost seemed like they wanted to put him out of business. Things started making a little more sense to me when he told me that Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier were on an oversight board with Michael Harrington, the owner and operator of ‘Merrill’s Investigations’, one of the largest PI firms in Maine. Mr. Doyon explained to me how Mr. Harrington was the single biggest force behind the recent changes in the PI laws; manipulating people and rising to the top as president of the MLPIA (Maine Licensed Private Investigators Association) that made it harder for out of state companies and small one man operations to work in Maine. I could not believe what I was hearing. These are the things you read about in Ayn Rand books, not experience in real life.

I found it even more interesting as Mr. Doyon explained that many years ago, when he was a Police Officer, he was called to the scene of an accident where he found a relative of a Maine State Trooper intoxicated. Then Officer Doyon, arrested this individual on DUI. Doyon explained this aforementioned Trooper was then in charge of Licensing of Private Investigators. It was clear when their re-investigation failed to produce any new evidence and the AG wouldn’t prosecute Mr. Doyon of any wrongdoing, Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier retaliated and refused to renew Mr. Doyon’s PI license. In some ways this was a double retaliation by these disgusting Troopers, first for good 'ol boys and second for not being charged with a crime they predetermined he was guilty of.

Due to the illegal actions of Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier, Mr. Doyon went without a license for nearly 5 months. The state police supposedly only suspended his license for 30 days, however in reality he was out of business for nearly five months. During that period his income and business were destroyed and he reached a low that he never imagined could happen. Mr. Doyon, as anyone would, was depressed and defeated. He felt powerless and victimized by the very people that are supposed to protect and serve. He slowly rebuilt his life and his business, however has never really recovered from the scars left on him by these rouge state troopers.

As I listened to him on the phone, I believed everything he told me, because the same things happened to me. Maybe not the exact same way, but Lt. Ireland and Det. Pelletier destroyed my business also and left me feeling the same way. They retaliated against me after I won in court and so I knew Mr. Doyon’s pain. They lied to me and never wanted to accept the truth. They pre-determined that I was guilty just like they did with Mr. Doyon. Both he and I are the victim of the lawlessness and corruption of Lt. Scott Ireland and Det. David Pelletier.

Sometimes in life you do not get a do-over. If you accidentally run into a pedestrian with your vehicle, and that person dies, you will be charged and go to prison for vehicular manslaughter. The circumstances of why you accidentally hit the pedestrian, no matter how valid, do not matter. You killed somebody and destroyed their family’s life. It does not matter if you’re the best person in the world, your still going to be charged with a crime and spend time in prison. It would not even matter if you were a decorated hero police officer who recently saved somebody’s life. There are some things that we as a society have deemed so egregious, that nobody should get away with. The standard for such an incident is usually an act or crime that destroys somebody’s life. When it comes to the law enforcement community, this standard is all too often overlooked. Many things that police have the power to do can adversely or seriously effect somebody’s life. If somebody is charged with a serious misdemeanor or felony it will often destroy them. That’s why police have a duty to never charge an innocent person with a crime or treat an innocent person like they are guilty. Our Founding Fathers recognized this and wrote the constitution and Bill of Rights to protect citizens from an overzealous government. The Maine State Police have two troopers in their ranks that embody everything our founding fathers feared. Their names are Lt. Scott W Ireland and Det. David Pelletier.

How many more victim’s need to come out before these two corrupt troopers are fired and charged with a crime for what they have done. Doing it to only one person is enough for them to be charged and fired. Now two people have come forward. I also know of another, who is currently afraid to come forward. I encourage them to change their mind however respect whatever decision they make. There is also a video on YouTube of then Sgt. Ireland telling a citizen “…you have lost your privilege to call the Governor’s office…”. I also located a video on YouTube of, who I believed to be, Det. Pelletier standing by a police cruiser while an unknown trooper walks up to a citizen and intimidates him for filming the police. I have reported their actions to the Maine State Police, Department of Public Safety, Office of Professional Standards, the internal affairs department. Lt. Anna Love will be heading up the investigation into them. Please contact her if you have also been victimized by Lt. Ireland or Det. Pelletier. Lt. Anna Love’s phone number is 207-624-7291 and her email address is Anna.H.Love@maine.gov

Here is a link to the video that Mr. Doyon watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1WS3P0mVmA&spfreload=10

Maine State Police Violate Civil, Constitutional and Human rights of Mass PI