Judge dismisses lawsuit by couple against DHS

BANGOR – A federal judge has dismissed a Moscow couple’s lawsuit against the Department of Human Services, the Maine State Police and a guardian ad litem for allegedly violating their rights.

In an Oct. 9 decision, U.S. District Judge George Singal said that the state of Maine, its agencies and its employees in their official capacity are immune from such suits.

Singal also said that while the information relating to the couple’s children will be sealed, the records that don’t describe the underlying child protective dispute will remain unsealed so that the public “may have continued access to information about the actions of their state officials.”

In their complaint filed last summer, Ann and William Tower Jr. contended that DHS caseworker Joan Leslie-Brown and State Trooper Darryl Peary Jr. had no warrants when they entered the Towers’ home without consent and arrested William Tower for simple assault while his two youngest children watched.

Also named as a defendant in the suit was Michelle Dolley, the children’s guardian ad litem, who allegedly failed to do what was in the best interests of those children, according to the Towers’ attorney, Ferdinand Slater of Hancock.

State workers went to the Towers’ home after one of the older children told school officials that William Tower slapped his 14-year-old stepson.

Tower, 48, a retired U.S. Army sergeant major, said he struck the boy as part of a disciplinary measure, and that the slap didn’t leave a mark.

Slater said Thursday that he was disappointed, but that his clients would proceed with their suit against Leslie-Brown and Peary as individuals.

“I had hoped that the federal judge would see a state entity the same way that the law sees a state municipality,” he said. “I think the federal court has given the people with the hardest job, the caseworkers and troopers, a very clear indication that [they] may be held individually responsible … that the department is going to protect itself and leave the caseworkers on their own.

“My clients are still optimistic that they will prevail. Unfortunately, it won’t be the state that’s held accountable. It will be the individuals,” he said.