County family sues police dispatcher, state Lawsuit alleges lack of response to calls for help

BANGOR – An Aroostook County family that claims it has been the target of racist attacks since moving to Maine several years ago is suing the state and a state police dispatcher in Houlton for $5 million claiming their constitutional right to equal protection was violated when the dispatcher refused to summon help when he received an emergency 911 call last winter.

The lawsuit contains allegations of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress following an alleged incident Jan. 28 that, the lawsuit claims, involved unidentified snowmobilers riding up to the front of the family home in New Limerick and shouting threats and racial slurs.

The Vargas family seeks punitive damages, costs, injunctive and declaratory relief. The defendants are charged with negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Their behavior was “extreme and outrageous,” the lawsuit states.

Fearing for the lives and safety of himself and family members, Daylo Vargas, the family patriarch, claims he called state police in Houlton at 4 a.m. and explained to a dispatcher identified as only “Smith” that help was needed. He claims that Smith replied “snow sleds are for game wardens” but offered no immediate help.

It later was determined through a local resident and a staff member at the agency that dispatcher Robert Smith is the person mentioned in the lawsuit.

Daylo Vargas is also known as Darren Vargas. He and his family “have suffered several years from racially motivated violence and harassment” since moving to Maine, the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, Vargas’ wife, Regina Vargas, and their three children, plus a classmate of one of the children, were asleep in the home when at least two people on separate snowmobiles approached the front window of the home. Vargas claims he heard one voice say, “You’re [expletive, racial epithet]” and another voice saying, “… something die …,” according to the lawsuit.

Vargas “ran for the door and grabbed a club – an ax handle near the door – and went outside …” the lawsuit states. He heard snow sleds “going in the distance across the street. Snow tracks in the snow were clearly visible,” the lawsuit states.

The New Limerick family is of Hispanic/African American descent, according to the lawsuit.

The alleged incident involved a state agency that has handled more than a dozen prior complaints from Vargas and several others from local residents complaining about Vargas.

According to the lawsuit, it was eight hours after the initial 911 call that the Vargas telephone rang, and a member of the sheriff’s department, not the state police, asked if the family had received help.

In the afternoon of Jan. 28, Vargas called the state police at Houlton seeking an explanation for the lack of response to his call for help.

“The reply was enlightening,” the lawsuit states. “The state police representative said ‘The incident was not even on record there,”’ the lawsuit states.

The Vargas family is represented by attorney Charles G. Williams III of Lewiston. Calls to Williams this week and last were not returned.

Chuck Dow, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said he was not aware of the lawsuit but that the state, as a matter of course, defends state employees who are sued.

Leanne Robbin, an assistant attorney general, said Monday she will represent the state and Smith in the matter although she hadn’t received the complaint yet.

Though she could not comment on specifics, Robbin listened while the complaint was read to her. In general, she said, “if there are third parties out there engaging in making racial threats and hurling racial epithets, obviously that’s a situation no family should have to tolerate or deal with.”

Yet, Robbin added, “It’s clear from the face of the complaint that law enforcement officials did not cause the situation. They complained about their response to the situation.”

The state police dispatcher named in the matter has been a long-term state employee, according to one member of the state police department.

The lawsuit could be ready for trial within a year.