District attorney may face disciplinary hearing in Oakland woman who claims she was drugged and raped in Waterville

The district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties faces allegations before the Maine Bar Review Board that she violated rules of conduct in her cases involving an Oakland woman who alleged she was drugged and raped in a bar in Waterville and the authorities did not conduct a proper investigation.

Pamela Boivin of Oakland filed a complaint last year with the State Bar Board of Supervisors, which oversees lawyers in Maine, alleging that District Attorney Meagan Maloney improperly contacted her friend, who also worked at the Family Violence Project, and offered to share confidential information about the criminal case against her and the investigation into her alleged sexual abuse. Bouvin argued that Maloney did this to bypass Boivin’s lawyer and get her to plea bargain, and to silence Boivin’s online criticism of authorities for not adequately investigating or prosecuting her alleged rape.

Prosecutors are not allowed to directly contact defendants if they have a lawyer representing them.

An initial investigation by the board’s oversight committee found, according to a petition from the board’s attorney, that there was probable cause that Maloney violated the Maine Rules of Bar Conduct, and the board’s grievance committee should hold a hearing to consider disciplinary action against her. penalty.

Zachary filed the petition, which Boivin posted online among many other documents in the case Paakkonenassistant attorney for the Bar Watch Council, and alleges that Maloney violated the rules of conduct by attempting to contact Boivin without contacting Boivin’s attorney and by offering to share confidential information about her case with a woman who works at the Family Violence Project. The petition alleges that this was an attempt to contact Boiven to get her to take a plea deal to resolve the operating under the influence case against her.

Paakkonen wrote that the panel’s panel “found probable cause to believe that prosecutor Maloney engaged in misconduct punishable under the Maine Bar Rules.”

Maloney, in an interview and in a motion filed with the Board of Supervisors to dismiss the case, says she did nothing wrong and only reached out to a woman from the Family Violence Project, identified only by her initials in the petition, whom Maloney identified as, which meets the definition of “victim advocate” because she thought she could help Boavin deal with her alleged sexual assault. She said she did not provide any sensitive information to the woman, who declined Maloney’s request to intervene. Maloney said that if the woman had agreed to act as an attorney, she would have been allowed access to information about her case.

“I asked a victim advocate to contact the alleged sexual assault victim, which I have done on many, many occasions,” Maloney said. “The sole purpose of my appeal (to the woman from the Family Violence Project) was to help Ms. Boavin with her primary complaint of sexual abuse.

“When sexual assault allegations do not lead to a suspect, a victim advocate is even more important than when a criminal case is pending. The Waterville Police Department did everything they could to investigate her case, but Ms. Boiven is still upset that there is no one to press charges against. As in many other cases, I have referred victims’ advocates to victims in cases where we could not prove the charges.”

Boivin said the woman Maloney contacted is not a victim advocate and primarily works as a domestic violence educator in schools. She suspects Maloney approached her because she knew they were friends.

She claims Maloney hoped to silence Boivin’s numerous online complaints that authorities were not taking her drug and rape charges seriously. She said her main goal in filing her complaints with the council was to raise awareness not only of her own rape, but also of the reports she says she has received since then, of dozens of others reporting rapes. in the rape rooms of bars and restaurants in Waterville. and the police did not investigate their allegations.

“I want the mass drugging and rape of women in Waterville, Maine to be investigated,” Boiven said. “I want answers to the significant discrepancies in my rape ‘investigation’ and all those before and after me. This has been going on for years and these drug-induced rape victims deserve justice.”

Waterville Police Chief William Bonney said in response to Boiven’s allegations that there is no evidence that there are any rape chambers in Waterville. The owner of the tavern where Boivin says she was raped has denied any such incident and has threatened legal action if Boivin continues to make such public allegations.

Boivin said she was drugged, raped and robbed on Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023, at a Waterville bar, and was later found by police in her car in a ditch, unable to tell them where she lived or answer questions or comply. simple commands because they were previously under the influence of drugs.

Bouvin was arrested that day on Route 139 in Fairfield after the Fiat she was driving was seen reversing. She was charged with operating while intoxicated, failing to stop and refusing to sign a summons and complaint, Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said. Asked if Boivin had told deputies she had been sexually assaulted, Lancaster said she had not.

According to documents posted on her social media, Boivin reported to Waterville police on April 25, 2023 that she had been sexually assaulted on the day of her arrest. She claims the police did not take her report seriously and later refused to inform her of any progress in her case. She eventually pleaded guilty to operating while intoxicated and the other charges against her were dropped. No sexual assault case has been filed on her behalf.

Attorney Joseph Jabar, a former Maine Supreme Judicial Court judge who is representing Maloney against the charges before the board, said the board’s findings are flawed. He said Maloney was acting within her role as a prosecutor when she tried to contact an attorney because she was concerned for Boiven’s well-being after reading her online posts about how the rape and the lack of investigation had negatively affected her life. .

He argues the board should dismiss the case without holding a hearing to consider disciplinary action against Maloney, who he says did nothing wrong and was only trying to help the woman, not silence her rape allegations.

“The conspiracy, that’s all the background noise, the real issue is whether Meighan was legally allowed to turn the case over to an attorney for her assistance, which she does all the time,” Jabbar said. “I don’t understand why they would file a case against a district attorney who acted within the law and should be fired.”

Maloney has previously been the subject of a disciplinary hearing by the Maine Board of Bar Overseers. Maloney was warned by the boardthe lowest level of sanction the board can impose, other than dismissal, for meeting with then-Supreme Court Justice Donald Mardenat his request, without a defense attorney present during the sexual assault trial of Eric Bard, a Sydney resident originally convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for the rape of a four-year-old girl.

The state’s highest court ruled that Bard was denied due process because Maloney met with Marden without his attorney present and granted him a new trial. Rather than face a new trial, Bard accepted a plea deal in 2023, pleading guilty to the 21 charges against him and receiving a negotiated 28-year sentence.

Both Jabar and Boivin said a hearing before the board has not yet been scheduled.

Jabar and Maloney also sought to have Boivin remove her online posts with documents filed with the Board of Supervisors, which Jabar said are confidential until the board’s process enters a public phase. Jabar said the board did not act on his request.

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