Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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Ben Meiklejohn
Cumberland County Jail records suggest that a Portland School Committee member who was arrested last weekend did not wait an inordinate amount of time in jail before being bailed out.
Ben Meiklejohn, who was arrested on a charge of driving with a suspended license, said this week that he spent several hours being processed at the jail and suggested the delays were politically motivated.
Jail records released on Tuesday show that Meiklejohn spent 107 minutes at the jail. The average time for everyone who was bailed that morning was 122 minutes, though that included one man who was held for four hours on a domestic violence charge. Absent that case, the average wait was 76 minutes.
Nobody who was arrested after Meiklejohn was released before him, records show.
Meiklejohn, 35, was pulled over by police on Forest Avenue about 1 a.m., driving a car with a broken headlight. He had volunteered to drive a friend's car home because the friend had been drinking. A check of his license showed it had been suspended last month because Meiklejohn had not paid traffic tickets from more than a year and a half ago.
Meiklejohn said his girlfriend waited for more than an hour and a half in the jail lobby with the balance of his bail money and couldn't understand why he wasn't being released.
Meiklejohn at first blamed the delay on bail commissioner Willam Gorham, saying the former city councilor was exacting retribution for having lost to a member of Meiklejohn's Green Independent Party in November's elections.
On Tuesday, he said he is no longer making that complaint. "I was frustrated that night. I don't want to be so quick to publicly accuse partisanship grudges for being involved," he said.
Gorham, a Democrat, defended his handling of bail cases that morning, saying he is an officer of the court and treats the job with professionalism.
Gorham said he arrived at 1:30 a.m. and the jail lobby was full. He began processing bail requests based on the order they were given to him, he said.
During the shift that ran from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., 16 people were booked into jail and eight were released on bail.
When an officer brings a person to jail, the person must be searched and submit information for a computer file. Detainees also must have their pictures and fingerprints recorded.
Meiklejohn was released on $1,000 unsecured bond pending a court appearance in May. He was at the jail from 1:30 a.m. to 3:17 a.m.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
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The most accurate statement on this subject! Because Portland has become whacked-out.
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Gee, your being kind of harsh on old Ben there aren't you Michael?
No skills? No abilities? He has demonstrated he is capable of operating an automobile at night with one headlight and a drunk as co-pilot. He plays the oboe. He claims three home towns (none of them Portland) Wolfeboro, NH, S. Burlington, Vt and Kennebunk, ME. He is a college educated house painter who earns "less than $30,000." He is a Gemini. Among his many interests are "Zebras."
He sounds EXACTLY like what I would expect to find as a member of the PSC. All this publicity will probably assure him of re-election as long as he cares to run. Assuming he remembers to file his election papers.
Much, much too harsh.report abuse
How true, ExPortlander!
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