The tension over sexual abuse allegations that roiled Biddeford City Hall for months is threatening to hijack the mayoral race, with six days remaining before voters go to the polls.
Mayor Alan Casavant, his challenger, Daniel Parenteau, and Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, all made statements Tuesday condemning an anonymous Facebook page with a post that asked explicit questions about Casavant’s sex life.
Casavant said the post is an example of how the sexual abuse issue has been politicized.
The page, titled “Encouraging Alan Casavant to be Honest,” was apparently taken down Wednesday afternoon.
Casavant has been the subject of critical comments on assorted Facebook pages over the past seven months, as the city has dealt with controversy over allegations of sexual abuse against a former police officer.
He said he was reluctantly calling attention to the social media post, which was apparently deleted a short time after it was posted. He drew a direct connection between the post and the sexual abuse issue that had dominated city council meetings for much of the year.
The issue was brought to the council by Matt Lauzon, a Boston businessman who went public early in the year with assertions that he was molested by former Biddeford police officer Stephen Dodd while Lauzon was growing up in Biddeford. While the Attorney General’s Office investigated the allegations, Lauzon and his supporters pressured the council to conduct its own probe and suspend the police chief. Council meetings frequently grew unruly as Lauzon and others pressed city officials, who said there was little they could say because of the ongoing investigation by the state.
The Attorney General’s Office announced in August that there was “insufficient evidence” to prove a crime was committed and no charges were filed. Lauzon has said he will file a civil lawsuit against the city by the end of the year.
Lauzon would not say Wednesday if he created the “Encouraging Alan Casavant to be Honest” Facebook page, or if he knows who did.
“I’m not going to comment on any pages,” he said in an email.
In a separate statement, Lauzon said he posts in a Facebook group called “Healing Biddeford” but says other people have created separate pages that are not associated with him.
“This is a political stunt and I hope it is put to rest,” he said of the page that targets Casavant.
Casavant, who is seeking a third term as mayor, called the post “a new low in Maine politics.” He does not specifically accuse Lauzon of creating the page but wrote, “The players are the same – you all know them, and you certainly know the author of this post. He has been nothing if not prolific.”
The Facebook page does not identify an administrator and the Portland Press Herald could not determine who authored the post. A message sent to the page seeking comment was read but not returned Wednesday.
Parenteau, Casavant’s opponent, posted a letter on the Facebook page condemning the attack. He said the page and its author or authors are not connected to his campaign. He demanded that the page be taken down, but later said his letter was removed.
“These posts are so far beyond the pale of decency that they serve only to demonize individuals in a vendetta-style attack,” he wrote in the letter. “This isn’t even politics – it’s an acid bath – and it is not only an affront to unsupported candidates but an affront to me personally.”
Fecteau, the Biddeford lawmaker and the youngest openly gay state legislator in the country, said the post implies that the mayor is gay and that this would make him a less qualified candidate.
“Innuendo like this should be condemned by all candidates and elected officials in our city,” Fecteau said. “As a gay person, a member of this community, as a leader, I cannot and will not sit idle when political campaigning resorts to attacking a person’s character in a way that not only disparages the candidate but also gay persons.”
Neither Casavant nor Parenteau have made the sexual abuse case an issue during their campaigns, but they also have not been able to escape questions about it. Many of Lauzon’s most vocal supporters have endorsed Parenteau, who has distanced himself from the negative comments those supporters made at council meetings and on Facebook.
Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:
Twitter: @grahamgillian
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