A former Maranacook High School basketball player was charged with impersonating a police officer after he allegedly showed a badge, and armed with a loaded gun, talked his way into meeting with the Maranacook/Winthrop boys’ lacrosse team.
Caleb Jackson, 19, of Wayne, was charged by police with impersonating a public servant, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a gun on school property at Kents Hill School in Readfield, where the lacrosse team had just played.
He was taken to the Kennebec County jail and was later freed on bail, according to a news release from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Wednesday afternoon, the school district and state police were tentatively organizing a forum for Wednesday night for parents of lacrosse team members so they could ask questions of Maine State Police Trooper Jed Malcore, who is leading the investigation.
“If you were a parent, you might have some questions as to why it went down the way it did last night,” said state police Lt. Mark Brooks, commander of Troop C, in Skowhegan.
“The primary issue for everyone is that a weapon was on school grounds,” Brooks added.
Jackson, who had a holstered and loaded gun on his belt, hidden under his coat, approached boys’ lacrosse coach Zach Stewart as he walked off the field after his team’s loss to Messalonskee and said there had been a report filed in regards to the lacrosse team.
“He had a gun and he had a badge,” Stewart told a Kennebec Journal reporter Tuesday night. “He comes up and says, ‘I need to talk with you and I need to talk with your team,’ and he showed me his badge.”
Jackson claimed he was a federal officer, Stewart said.
Stewart rounded up the team, about 15 or 20 boys, and they went to the Alfond Athletic Center adjacent to the field and had a “closed-door conversation with him and the team.”
Stewart said Jackson wanted to talk about “sexting.”
“He made some strong accusations (about members of the team),” Stewart added.
Stewart said he didn’t want the students questioned without representation, so he called police. He said he didn’t recognize Jackson as a Maranacook graduate.
He said that there were people at the game who knew Jackson and were talking to him during the game, but didn’t say if any lacrosse team members knew him.
Jackson was still on the school grounds when state police got there, McCausland said, and was arrested.
The gun, which was loaded when police found it in Jackson’s car, was not taken out of the holster during the meeting with the team and there’s no indication Jackson threatened anyone, the release said.
Jackson graduated from Maranacook in 2014. A guard, he was an honorable mention on the Kennebec Journal boys basketball team in 2014.
On Wednesday, Brooks said that in most cases, a law enforcement officer’s identity should be “self-evident,” since they usually travel in a marked police vehicle and are uniformed. He said if someone isn’t sure if someone who represents himself as a law enforcement officer is genuine, the person should ask for identification and documentation.
People can also contact the local police department or emergency communications center to double-check an officer’s identity if they don’t believe them, Brooks added.
“I can understand why people are frustrated at the coach and athletic director, but in the end, they were trying to be cooperative and make sure that their team members weren’t taking part in a criminal act,” Brooks said.
Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Randy Whitehouse contributed to this report.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
