A mental health supervisor who refused to give clients’ names is placed in custody.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Maine State Police are investigating an incident that occurred last month when a mental health agency supervisor was arrested in front of coworkers and then released.

The man was handcuffed and placed in a cruiser after he refused to turn over the names of clients, which he said are protected by law, to a trooper.

Although the internal investigation into the alleged actions of the trooper remains ongoing, Ed Miller of Tri-County Mental Health Services Inc. said he has received an apology from the Maine State Police for being wrongly arrested. But he hasn’t received one from State Trooper Derrick Record, who handcuffed and arrested him and then released him after Miller refused to give the trooper names of clients visiting the mental health agency on April 29, the day Record’s cruiser was damaged.

Miller lodged a complaint against Record with the State Police over the incident, State Police spokesman Steve McCausland said.

State Police Lt. Dale Lancaster and Record were not available for comment Wednesday.

Miller said Wednesday police were called to Tri-County Mental Health Services last month after a person involved in a scuffle in the parking lot of the High Street agency requested police be called.

Cruiser damaged

Farmington police responded and handled the case “well,” as usual, Miller said.

Record, who responded as backup, claimed his cruiser had been damaged, Miller said.

And because of that, Record told Miller he wanted all the names of the clients who had visited the agency that day, Miller said.

“I tried to work with him,” Miller said. “I told him I was sorry that his cruiser was damaged.”

Miller said he told Record the agency could try to find the person who may be responsible and have that person contact him. But he wasn’t releasing the names of the clients, Miller said.

“We couldn’t give him information he requested without a court order,” Miller said. Federal and state laws and the agency’s policy protects mental health information and it can only be released with a court order, Miller said.

Miller said that Record told him he was obstructing his investigation and that it was against the law.

After Miller declined to provide the information, he said, Record placed him in handcuffs and told him he was under arrest.

Miller said his staff, including his boss, Chris Copeland, witnessed the encounter with Record. Record allegedly told his staff that he would be back for the information requested and if it wasn’t given to him there would be more arrests, Miller said.

The trooper placed Miller in the cruiser, Miller said, and proceeded to the jail. All the while, Miller said, Record was calling people, and his boss was calling people.

After Record spoke to a state prosecutor, Miller said, “he decided I was no longer under arrest.”

Miller said he “wasn’t very worried about the arrest because I thought I was right and had witnesses and I know a lot of people up at the jail.”

Miller of Farmington has worked for the agency for 23 years, he said.

He had never dealt with Record.

“He didn’t do anything that was abusive,” Miller said. But, he added, it’s humiliating to be led out in handcuffs in front of staff.

Miller said he is waiting to see what happens with the police investigation. He hasn’t made a decision over what he’ll do, he said, if those results are not to his satisfaction.

“The State Police have apologized and said they were ‘sorry and regretted it happened,'” Miller said. “Derek has never apologized, not yet.”

But Miller said he might not be able to speak to him due to the ongoing investigation.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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