BANGOR — A former student of the Loring Job Corps Center has filed a lawsuit against Career Systems Development Corp. — the company that manages LJC — after he was dismissed from the school for alleged gang activity.
Gregory Poindexter, 19, and his mother, Chevonne Handy of Stamford, Conn., allege that Poindexter was assaulted by three other students at the center on Dec. 5, 2010, when he was 17, then kicked out of school because of alleged gang activity.
Handy was informed three days later, on Dec. 8, that her son had been dismissed after a hearing held the day before by the Behavior Review Board, according to the Bangor Daily News.
According to the complaint, “CSD stated that the three-member board unanimously found [Poindexter] had engaged in ‘gang activity including wearing of gang clothing, colors or making signs or handshakes that are associated with known gangs’ and ‘inciting disturbances and creating disorder.’”
Portland attorney James Clifford, who filed the lawsuit on April 13 against Career Systems Development Corp. and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in U.S. District Court in Bangor, denied that Poindexter was involved in any type of gang activity.
Pointexter’s mother is the plaintiff in the lawsuit because he was underage when the incident happened last year.
The lawsuit, which hadn’t yet been served on Career Systems as of late last week, seeks Poindexter’s reinstatement into the Job Corps program along with unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
According to the Bangor Daily News, the complaint alleges that Poindexter was denied due process during the dismissal proceedings and was discriminated against on the basis of race. The lawsuit also charges that Career Systems Development Corp. was negligent in caring for Poindexter after the assault, in which his jaw was broken, and in its oversight of students at the Loring Job Corps Center.
Assault charges were filed in connection with the alleged attack on Poindexter against two former LJC students in Caribou District Court; Franklin Leonard, 19, of Limestone was convicted of class “D” assault in March 2011 after a trial, and sentenced to 90 days in jail with all but six days suspended and ordered to pay a $500 fine. The second student was charged but not convicted.
