PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A woman charged with a civil violation stemming from the October death of a retired local educator who was struck by her car in the crosswalk at a Presque Isle grocery store denied any wrongdoing during a court hearing on Jan. 21.
The family of Donald “Duke” Martin of Portage Lake, who was fatally injured on Oct. 3, are upset about the perceived weak nature of the charge and because the identity of the woman who was driving the car was kept private by police and prosecutors until only recently.
“I got the police report and all her information was all blacked out,” Martin’s daughter Rebecca Wright said. “They wouldn’t even give me her name to give to the insurance company.”
The reason is etched in state law. The 44-year-old driver is a victim of domestic violence stalking who came to Maine from another state. When she arrived, she applied for “private person” status with the Maine secretary of state to have her name and address deemed confidential in order to protect herself, according to Presque Isle Police Chief Matt Irwin.
The Address Confidentiality Program, passed by the Maine Legislature in 2005, is designed to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. There are 172 people enrolled in the program, 87 of them children, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said.
With so few people in the program, Irwin said, it’s very rare for an enrollee to be subject to charges that put him or her into the public eye, which is what happened in Presque Isle.
“It’s the first time I’ve had to deal with it,” the police chief said.
For Wright, who lives in Ellsworth, this status made getting information about the collision that took her father’s life frustrating for her family.
“I couldn’t get the [district attorney] to answer any of my questions,” she said.
“It was three months later and she still couldn’t get information,” her husband, Michael Wright, said. “It sounds so crazy.”
The Address Confidentiality Program is one of several ways a person’s identity can be deemed private through the secretary of state, Dunlap said, adding that a request also can come through the court system or law enforcement.
But, the secretary of state added, “If one of our clients is accused of a crime, we can’t hide you.”
The gray area in Martin’s death is that the driver was charged with a civil violation, Irwin said.
“It’s not a crime. It’s a civil infraction and I’m not sure it reached that threshold,” the Presque Isle police chief said.
The driver’s name was not totally protected. The BDN was able to obtain it through requesting a copy of the accident report from the state’s online database, and her name was publicly listed on the court docket for her hearing on Jan. 21.
Irwin said he was unaware that her name was part of the initial crash report or on the court docket.
“That is a gap that needs to be bridged,” the police chief said.
The BDN is not releasing the driver’s name because she is a victim of domestic violence and has not been charged with a crime.
Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking victims have access to the program, and must be accepted into it, Dunlap said.
The law worked the way it was suppose to, up to a point, said Julia Colpitts, executive director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. She also was surprised that the driver’s name was released in the initial crash report and at court.
“My understanding is the gap is not in the law, but in the performance,” Colpitts said.
The coalition worked last year to fill some of the known holes in the state law that dealt with court cases and the release of a domestic violence victim’s address. Under the program, all mail goes to one address in Augusta and then it is forwarded to the individual.
“It makes it harder to find people,” she said. “It provides that certain buffer of safety.”
Rebecca Wright said the driver, who lives in Presque Isle, has the right to protect herself from the person who previously stalked her.
“We do feel we have the right to see her in court,” said Wright, who traveled to Presque Isle for the driver’s first court appearance on Jan. 21 and plans to attend her Feb. 27 court hearing.
Her father, 87, was wearing a fluorescent vest and was in a marked crosswalk when he was struck in the late afternoon on Oct. 3. He died of his injuries on Oct. 10 at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Martin was born in Fort Fairfield in 1927, served in the U.S. Navy, earned degrees from the University of Maine, Boston University and the University of Southern Maine, and taught at high schools in Fort Fairfield and Presque Isle. He ended his 39-year teaching career working in the field of adult education and retired in 1991.
He and his wife, Gloria, who has been diagnosed with dementia and early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, had moved to Portage Lake.
The driver was charged with a “motor vehicle violation resulting in death.” If convicted, she could face a fine of up to $5,000, community service, and driver’s license suspension of between 14 days and four years.
The driver had her lawyer, Alan Harding, enter a denial plea for her in court, according to Carrie Linthicum, Aroostook County deputy district attorney.
Rebecca Wright said the state law allowing the civil offense for motor vehicle violations resulting in death, which was enacted in 2009, is “outrageous” and needs to be changed.
“I think people would actually be shocked to know that you can hit someone and kill them and don’t get charged with a crime,” she said.
