Portland police arrest Green on school board

PORTLAND – For the second time in four months, a Green Independent with a seat on the Portland School Committee has been arrested by Portland police.

Benjamin Meiklejohn was taken into custody around 1 a.m. Saturday and charged with driving a friend’s car with a suspended license, a misdemeanor.

Meiklejohn characterized the charge as a “minor misunderstanding” and said he planned to file a complaint about being forced to linger in the Cumberland County Jail while awaiting his release on bail.

Another Green Independent on the school committee, Jason Toothaker, was arrested in January for misdemeanor theft after he allegedly skipped out on a $4.65 cab fare.

Toothaker resigned from the school board, but Meiklejohn said he had no plans to give up his seat.

“It’s a minor offense,” Meiklejohn said Sunday.

He said he will file a complaint against former City Councilor William Gorham, a Democrat who works as a bail commissioner at the jail.

Meiklejohn claimed that Gorham, who lost his council race in November to a Green Independent candidate, made him wait in the jail as political payback for that defeat.

Meiklejohn said he had to stay in the jail while “drunks and violent people” who were arrested after him paid their fees and went free.

Gorham called the accusation “ridiculous” and said the committee member received the same treatment as anyone else awaiting bail that morning.

Meiklejohn said he was driving an intoxicated friend home in her car when police pulled him over for a broken headlight. He said the officer told him his license was suspended because he hadn’t paid a year-old fine for driving another friend’s unregistered vehicle.

Meiklejohn, who doesn’t own a car, said he sent in a request to challenge the fine in court, but never heard back from authorities and forgot about the matter.

“It’s the type of thing that could happen to any adult,” he said.